A-jad is forming his cabinet. This first VP appointment faces opposition and has just resigned.
Ahmadinejad's controversial VP pick quits: report
Ahmadinejad's controversial VP pick quits: report
16 hrs ago [AFP] TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's choice as first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, has walked away from the job, state media reported on Sunday.
Mashaie, a controversial politician and confidant of Ahmadinejad, has "resigned three days after his appointment" as first vice president, state-owned English-language channel Press TV reported. ....
The appointment was strongly opposed by hardliners among Ahmadinejad's own support base.
Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, is an outspoken figure who last year earned the wrath of hardliners, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for saying Iran is a "friend of the Israeli people."
In his current role as vice president in charge of tourism he sparked ire among MPs for reportedly watching a group of women dance at a congress in Turkey in 2007.
His nomination as first vice president had ruffled feathers among hardliners deeply sensitive to any breach of the long-standing taboo on relations of any kind with arch foe Israel. ....
Since the announcement of Mashaie's appointment on Friday, there has been a chorus of criticism from hardliners. ....
The resistance to Mashaie's appointment was a sign of the difficulties Ahmadinejad is likely to face in forming a new cabinet after his hotly contested re-election in a June 12 vote that his main challenger denounced as a "shameful fraud". ....
Mashaie, a controversial politician and confidant of Ahmadinejad, has "resigned three days after his appointment" as first vice president, state-owned English-language channel Press TV reported. ....
The appointment was strongly opposed by hardliners among Ahmadinejad's own support base.
Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, is an outspoken figure who last year earned the wrath of hardliners, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for saying Iran is a "friend of the Israeli people."
In his current role as vice president in charge of tourism he sparked ire among MPs for reportedly watching a group of women dance at a congress in Turkey in 2007.
His nomination as first vice president had ruffled feathers among hardliners deeply sensitive to any breach of the long-standing taboo on relations of any kind with arch foe Israel. ....
Since the announcement of Mashaie's appointment on Friday, there has been a chorus of criticism from hardliners. ....
The resistance to Mashaie's appointment was a sign of the difficulties Ahmadinejad is likely to face in forming a new cabinet after his hotly contested re-election in a June 12 vote that his main challenger denounced as a "shameful fraud". ....
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