A group of Iranian hardliners raised objections yesterday to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to appoint close aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as the country’s new first vice president.
“It is imperative to terminate the appointment of Mashaie as first vice president in order to respect the wishes of the majority of the people,” said Hossein Shriatmadari, managing director of the hardline Kayhan newspaper, who was appointed to his post by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“When people found out about the appointment, they viewed this move as one taken not just in bad taste ... but as one which shows indifference [toward them],” he wrote in an editorial in the newspaper.
The appointment of Mashaie, a close confidant of Ahmadinejad, had been expected to ruffle feathers among the country’s hardliners and clerical groups who heavily influence politics in the Islamic republic.
Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad’s son, is a controversial figure who last year was rapped by hardliners and Khamenei for saying Iran is a “friend of the Israeli people.”
The Islamic republic has repeatedly vowed never to recognize Israel, which was an ally of pro-US shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mashaie also provoked the ire of members of parliament for allegedly watching a Turkish woman dance while at a tourism congress in Turkey in 2007.
Ahmad Khatami, a leading hardline cleric and one of Tehran’s Friday prayer leaders, has also lashed out at Mashaie’s appointment.
“This appointment has been made in defiance to the members of the Assembly of Experts, the majlis [parliament] and several elite who have often mentioned that the post is a sensitive one,” Khatami was quoted as saying in the Jam-e Jam newspaper.
Ahmadinejad praised Mashaie as a “pious and dedicated” man who believes in the principles of the revolution of the Islamic republic.
Mashaie, currently vice president in charge of tourism, replaces Parviz Davoudi as the first vice president.
There are several other vice presidents in Ahmadinejad’s current lineup.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS