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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Presidential Election TV Debate Fails to Inspire
2013-06-02
[An Nahar] Candidates in Iran's June 14 presidential election all agree that rampant inflation is the most pressing problem, but commentators Saturday bemoaned that in a first television debate none proposed real solutions.

Press commentators accepted the complaints of several candidates that the Friday debate's format, which gave little scope for real discussion of issues, had not helped them present their policies.

But with inflation topping 30 percent after a 70 percent fall in the value of the rial against the dollar sent the cost of imports soaring, editorial writers, analysts and ordinary viewers agreed that the presidential hopefuls needed to set out more substantial policies.

The final eight candidates were approved by the Guardians Council, Iran's unelected electoral watchdog, from 686 who registered to stand.

No women candidates were approved, and the disqualifications included moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012...
and incumbent Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's close ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

Constitutionally, Ahmadinejad himself cannot stand for a third consecutive term.

"The candidates all said they were going to resolve the problem of inflation but none of them explained how they were going to do it," complained one viewer interviewed by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Economist Hossein Raghfar told the reformist Aftab newspaper that none of the eight appeared to have established economic policies.

"It had been expected that each candidate would present his own solutions to control inflation, unemployment or support for domestic production, but none of them showed a clear solution which means they did not have an established plan," said Raghfar.

"In such circumstances, we cannot expect an improvement in the situation in the country."

Analyst Mohammad Saleh Sedghian agreed.

"There was no debate on their various economic policies, and this would not give the electorate a clear idea of each candidate's economic plans," he told AFP.

Mohammad Mehdi Forqani, communications professor at a Tehran university, told the Mehr news agency that the candidates had not been helped by the format of the debate, which "did not have the element of challenge".

"The multiple choice system of questioning was also not dignified for candidates in a presidential contest," he added.

The lone reformist candidate, former first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, refused to take part in one section of the broadcast in which each candidate was given multiple choice questions about his programme.

And conservative candidate Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told his own Tabnak website he would boycott the next two debates scheduled for Wednesday and Friday if the format does not change.

"I felt like I was back in elementary school... The fact that candidates were disrespected is not as important as the millions watching the debates being insulted," moderate candidate Hassan Rowhani told news hounds.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran bars candidates for presidential election
2013-05-22
[REUTERS] Iranian authorities barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month's presidential election on Tuesday, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the holy manal supreme leader.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012...
, a veteran companion of the Islamic Theocratic Republic's founder, a former president and thought potentially sympathetic to reform, was denied a place on the ballot by the Guardian Council of holy mans and jurists, state media said.

So too was Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close aide to outgoing president Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, whose hardline followers have jockeyed with those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Both rejections may generate angry responses and Mashaie for one said he would appeal, while urging supporters to stay calm.

Most of the remaining eight men on the ballot for the first round on June 14 are seen as loyalists to Khamenei, who seems determined to avoid a repeat of the popular unrest that followed Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009 - especially at a time when Iran is engaged in bitter economic, diplomatic and military confrontations with the West, Israel and its Arab neighbors.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran supreme leader urges restraint over bank scam
2011-10-03
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday called on politicians and the media to refrain from "making a fuss" over a $2.6 billion banking scam, state television reported.
Cheez, our Crony Socialist government can pee away that much before breakfast...
"Some people are seeking to use this (scam) as an excuse to bash the authorities," Khamenei said in televised comments.

"The media has covered the issue and that is fine, but they should not drag on... and to continue to make such a fuss and uproar (which) is not in the interests" of the country, Khamenei added.

On Monday, 11 lawmakers, including influential conservative MPs, wrote a letter to parliament speaker Ali Larijani requesting a probe into the conduct of the president's clique in the case, according to media reports.

They sought an investigation into "violations of the law committed by the president, his chief of staff, the president of the Central Bank and the economy minister," the reports added.

On Monday, Khamenei told critics to "let the officials do their job," while also calling on the authorities to "show no mercy to the saboteurs and the corrupt."

The remarks come as the huge scam, widely reported by the media since early September, has provoked hardline conservatives to sharply criticise the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Khamenei would have no problem at all selling Short Round down the river, but the bank fraud could whip up enough anger to bring down the Mad Mullahs™, and he can't have that.
The fraud, billed in the Iranian media as the country's "biggest-ever," apparently saw a private group accumulate $2.6 billion through forged letters of credit approved by half a dozen Iranian banks.

The controversy intensified when media opposed to Ahmadinejad published a letter attributed to his chief of staff and principal adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, in which he reportedly asked the economy minister to facilitate the group's operations.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad's ally 'arrested' in Iran
2011-06-24
[Al Jazeera] Iran's ex-deputy foreign minister - an ally of President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad - has been jugged on unspecified charges, an unnamed official has told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Malekzadeh had resigned from his position as deputy foreign minister on Tuesday.

"Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh was jugged a few hours ago," Rooters news agency reported citing Fars on Thursday.

His resignation came in the wake of pressure by hardline politicians, who accused him of being part of a "deviant current" trying to undermine the role of Iran's influential religious leaders.

Some members of parliament also accused him of financial corruption.

Malekzadeh was considered close to Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the president's controversial chief of staff, whom the conservatives accuse of being the head of the "deviant current".

Malekzadeh had been at the centre of a dispute between members of parliament, who opposed his nomination, and Ali-Akbar Salehi, Iran's foreign minister.

Salehi's initial refusal to remove him prompted more than 30 parliamentarians to petition the speaker for the minister's impeachment.

The row over his position is part of a wider power struggle among the country's ruling conservatives, who are divided between an absolute majority supporting Ayatollah Ali Khomenei, the supreme leader, who has the final say in all state affairs, and a minority who back Ahmadinejad.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Parliament Begins Impeachment of Salehi
2011-06-22
[An Nahar] Iran's parliament on Tuesday launched impeachment procedures against Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi for appointing an aide to the president's under fire chief of staff as one of his deputies.

The motion to impeach Salehi, signed by 33 politicians, was officially "read out in the parliament on Tuesday by an MP in the presiding board," as required by the law, a statement on the parliament website said.

Under the constitution, the signatures of 10 MPs in the 290-seat "majlis" are needed to start impeachment procedures against an incumbent minister. The move needs the approval of parliament's presiding board before being sent for a vote.

The targeted minister has to appear before parliament within 10 days to defend his case and ask for vote of confidence again.

The impeachment move comes after Salehi on Saturday appointed Mohammad Sahrif Malekzadeh as a deputy foreign minister in charge of administrative and financial affairs.

Malekzadeh was a top official in the high council of Iranian affairs abroad, run by President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, whom ultra-conservatives accuse of aiming to undermine the Islamic regime.

Ultra-conservatives, the Shiite clergy and the elite Revolutionary Guards have repeatedly called for Mashaie's dismissal, accusing him of leading "a current of deviation" and of exerting too much influence over the president.

Ahmadinejad has so far adamantly defended his aides, including Mashaie.

A number of influential deputies in the conservative-dominated parliament reacted to Salehi's appointment on Sunday by calling for his impeachment unless he sacks Malekzadeh.

In the impeachment notice, the deputies said that Malekzadeh's appointment was against national interests.

"Such an appointment jeopardises the nation's interests ... This person is on the verge of being tossed in the calaboose as (the judiciary) is investigating him over financial and non-financial cases," the notice said.

Influential MP Ahmad Tavakoli was quoted by the Iranian media on Monday as saying that the minister of intelligence had "told Salehi in writing that he is opposed to the appointment of Malekzadeh to the post of deputy foreign minister."

According to politicians in parliament's commission of national security and foreign policy, Salehi has given an undertaking that if he finds Malekzadeh has a criminal charges pending against him, he will be sacked.

On Tuesday, the vice-president in charge of parliamentary affairs, Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini, was quoted on parliament's website as saying that "there is the possibility of resolving the issue."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad Clique under Fire Despite Call for Calm
2011-06-07
[An Nahar] Ruling conservatives in Iran kept up their criticism of President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's inner circle on Monday, despite a plea for calm by all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Wasn't the Mahdi supposed to show up Monday?
In the latest broadside, Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, Khamenei's deputy representative to the elite Revolutionary Guards, accused Ahmadinejad's entourage of seeking to weaken the foundations of the Islamic republic.

"The current of deviation seeks to weaken the foundations of the Islamic establishment... I believe this movement is the gravest danger in the history of Shiite Islam," Mehr news agency quoted Zolnour as saying.

"Current of deviation" is a term coined by Ahmadinejad opponents to define an ideological movement they believe to be too liberal, nationalist and not nearly religious enough to coexist with the ruling conservatives in Iran.

The conservatives accuse Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close Ahmadinejad relative, confidant and chief of staff, of leading the movement.

"The head of this new sedition should be removed if the government wants to be clean... We hope this problem will be resolved, but it seems very unlikely such a thing will happen in the near future," Zolnour was quoted as saying.

On Saturday, on the 22nd anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the ruling conservatives to end the crisis, urging respect for diversity of political opinion within the regime.

"One has committed an immoral act if he insults his brothers... who disagree with his political view but we know are loyal to the Islamic system and Islam," Khamenei told hundreds of thousands of supporters at Khomeini's mausoleum.

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, another conservative, said with this approach Khamenei was trying to manage the crisis while also preventing the fall of the government "because the price of its fall would be heavier."

But Alamolhoda, quoted by the ISNA news agency, also said the people must be told that "the current of deviation has latched onto the executive branch like a virus."

For several months, conservative figures have repeatedly demanded the sacking of Mashaie, who despite the heavy criticism has so far enjoyed Ahmadinejad's unwavering support.

On Sunday, parliament speaker Ali Larijani also weighed into Mashaie for advocating an "Iranian Islam" school of thought, an idea which has infuriated conservative holy mans.

"The (executive) officials should avoid making theories (on religious issues). This is a task for religious schools," Larijani said in remarks reported by ISNA.

On Monday, a top Ahmadinejad adviser responded to the ongoing criticism by urging ultra-conservatives to heed the supreme leader's call for calm.

"For more than a month, a special political group... has used all political tools and propaganda to launch baseless accusations against officials and figures" in the government, Ali Akbar Javanfekr said.

"Their intention has been to weaken the government and president in the eyes of the people," Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's media adviser, wrote in an editorial in the government-run Iran newspaper.

Javanfekr suggested that the best way to resolve the crisis was for the conservatives to "acknowledge the strategic mistake" they had committed.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad under sorcerer's spell: top cleric
2011-05-16
Iran's diminutive President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has been put "under a spell" by his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, an ultra-conservative holy man was quoted by local media on Sunday as saying.
Actually, that explains quite a bit...
"I've told some of my close friends that I am more than 90 percent certain that (Ahmadinejad) has been put under a spell. This is not natural at all,"Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, believed to have once been a mentor of
the president, told the weekly Shoma.

"No sane person does such things unless his free will has been taken away,"Mesbah Yazdi said in reference to a crisis that has erupted since mid-April between Ahmadinejad and the hardline conservative camp close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"His actions have no justification. When he has 10 friends... does it make sense to constantly defy nine of them and defend (the actions of the) tenth person?" Mesbah Yazdi asked in an allusion to Mashaie.

Mashaie, the president's top adviser and close relative who has worked alongside Ahmadinejad for more than 25 years, has been the target of a barrage of criticism from the conservative camp in past weeks.

Mashaie, who has been condemned for being too liberal, holding nationalistic views dating back to pre-Islamic Iran, and for having a great influence on the president, is now accused of leading a "current of deviation" aimed at destroying the Islamic regime.

Mesbah Yazdi said he sensed a "great danger" lingering over Ahmadinejad because of Mashaie.

"I do not know if it is (because of) hypnotism, a spell or relations with yogis. But there is something wrong," said Mesbah Yazdi.

"It is almost as if this questionable person (Mashaie) has put this man (Ahmadinejad) under a spell, as if he has wrapped him around his finger," he said.

The conservatives also accuse Mashaie of orchestrating the attempted sacking of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi in mid-April, which was vetoed by the supreme leader.

The aborted dismissal triggered an unprecedented political crisis in the higher echelons of Iran's regime, with Ahmadinejad expressing his displeasure by withdrawing from public life and official duties for 10 days.

Several conservative websites have recently hinted that Mashaie may be connected to the practice of dark magic, while the judiciary has announced the arrest of two "sorcerers" but stopped short of linking them to the chief of staff.

The rumours have gained enough momentum to prompt Ahmadinejad to deny them publicly.

"Those who have spoken in recent days about the influence of fortune tellers and jinn (shape-shifting spirits) on government were telling jokes,"Ahmadinejad said on May 8.

Iran's first Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi hit back hard at the accusation by the ultra-conservatives.

"Some people speak of sorcery and jinns and attribute them to the government. Is it possible to govern the country with sorcery and jinn? Is it possible to send satellites into the sky (using them)? Science is behind all these issues," Rahimi was quoted as saying in some local papers.

"How could they attribute such things to Dr. Ahmadinejad, the president and a (university) professor?" Rahimi added.

Another vice president, Hamid Baghaie, defended Mashaie against accusations of deviancy, describing them as "slander."

Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, who heads the powerful Guardians Council, a body that oversees elections, interprets the constitution and vets parliamentary legislation, warned Ahmadinejad on Friday that he could not protect Mashaie forever.

"Some people seek to deviate from and act against the country and Velayat-e Faqih (the supreme leader)," Janati said.

"But there will come a day that the regime and the people will deal with them."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Former mentor: Ahmadinejad 'under a spell'
2011-05-15
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been put "under a spell" by his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, an ultra - fascist conservative cleric was quoted by local media as saying on Sunday.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, believed to have been Ahmadinejad's mentor, told the weekly Shoma, "I've told some of my close friends that I am more than 90 percent certain that (Ahmadinejad) has been put under a spell. This is not natural at all. No sane person does such things unless his free will has been taken away."

"His actions have no justification. When he has 10 friends... does it make sense to constantly defy nine of them and defend (the actions of the) tenth person?" Mesbah Yazdi asked in an allusion to Mashaie.

Mashaie, the president's top advisor and close relative who has worked alongside Ahmadinejad for more than a quarter century, has been the target of a developing purge barrage of criticism from the fascist conservative camp in past weeks.

Mashaie, who has been condemned for being too liberal, holding nationalistic views dating back to pre-Islamic Iran,
Too liberal and too reactionary, then?
and for having too much influence on the president, is now accused of leading a "current of deviation" aimed at destroying the Islamic regime.
A phrase worthy of the glory days of Maoist political rhetoric.
Mesbah Yazdi said he sensed "great danger" lingering over Ahmadinejad because of Mashaie.

"I do not know if it is (because of) hypnotism, a spell or relations with yogis. But there is something wrong. It is almost as if this questionable person (Mashaie) has put this man (Ahmadinejad) under a spell, as if he has wrapped him around his finger," said Mesbah Yazdi.

Several fascist conservative websites have recently hinted that he may be connected to practice of black magic, while the judiciary has announced the arrest of two "sorcerers" while not quite linking them to Mashaie.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad aide angers Iran conservatives
2010-08-08
[Al Arabiya Latest] A controversial close aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has incurred the wrath of Iranian conservatives who accused him of making "pagan" remarks about religion, media reported on Saturday.

"There are different interpretations of Islam, but our understanding of the real nature of Iran and of Islam is the Iranian school. From now on, we must present to the world the school of Iran," the president's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie said at a conference for Iranians living abroad.

His comments provoked a backlash from conservative politicians and clerics.
"Equating the school of Iran and the school of Islam amounts to pagan nationalism, which the people of Iran have never accepted," said Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, normally a close ally of the president.

Another hardline cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, condemned Mashaie for having "once again made erroneous and inappropriate statements."

Mashaie, a close relative of Ahmadinejad, has provoked similar controversy in the past.

He was forced to step down as first vice president in July last year after a row over his remark that Iran was a friend of the Israeli people. He was subsequently made the president's chief of staff.

Several conservative MPs called on Ahmadinejad to account for Mashaie's remarks on "Iranian" Islam.

"It's a betrayal of Islam and of Iran. The president must clarify his position on this individual who uses official forums to express views that are against the constitution, Islam and Iran," conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli was reported as saying.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran releases five detained British sailors
2009-12-03
[Al Arabiya Latest] Five British yachtsmen detained in the Gulf last week by Revolutionary Guards were freed Wednesday after it was determined they had inadvertently strayed into Iran's territorial waters, Iranian media said.

"The five Britons who had illegally entered with their vessel into the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran and who were arrested near the Siri Island have been freed hours ago, state radio quoted a statement by the Guards as saying.

The elite force whose navy patrols the Gulf waters said the five sailors were interrogated and "after investigation it became evident that their illegal entry was a mistake."

"So they were freed after taking the needed written commitments."

The five had been held since Nov. 25 and on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie warned they would be dealt with "firmly" if found guilty of illegal entry into Iranian waters.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki late on Tuesday and called for formal consular access to the men and their speedy release. They were detained on Nov. 25.

Relations between Britain and Iran have been dogged by tension in recent years over a range of issues, from Tehran's nuclear program to Iranian allegations of British involvement in post-election violence in June this year.

Britain stressed the five men were civilians and played down parallels with an incident in March 2007 when Iran seized eight British Royal Navy sailors and seven marines off its coast.

Miliband had also demanded consular access to them, saying they appeared to have "inadvertently" strayed into Iranian waters.

He also said the incident has "nothing to do" with politics or the standoff over the Islamic republic's nuclear program, which the West suspects has military aims despite Tehran's denial.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran may prosecute security, judicial officials
2009-08-06
[Khaleej Times] TEHRAN, Iran - Iran says it will prosecute security forces and officials accused of abusing civilians in unrest following the disputed June 12 election.

State news agency IRNA says security personnel and judicial officials could be among those charged. Pro-reform leaders have called for trials against those accused of killing or torturing demonstrators. At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds detained in clashes sparked by claims of fraud in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

More than 100 people, including prominent reformists, are facing a mass trial on accusations of seeking to undermine the state.

At least 30 people have died in the unrest that followed the vote, according to figures from a parliamentary investigation, and hundreds have been detained. Human rights groups believe the death toll is likely far higher.

Ahmadinejad also faces discontent from fellow conservatives in Iran's ruling hierarchy over the harsh crackdowns and accusations that some of those detained in the unrest have been mistreated.

Ahmadinejad last month also opened a brief -- but potentially disruptive -- confrontation with the supreme leader's ruling theocracy by refusing to drop his top deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai. Mashai had angered conservatives last year when he made friendly comments toward Israelis. But the president eventually relented and dropped Mashai.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad for a second term as president on Monday. Though both men were smiling, it was a noticeably cooler reception than four years ago, when Khamenei allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and then drew him close and kissed him on both cheeks. Still, Khamenei has firmly backed Ahmadinejad as the election winner from the beginning of the dispute and continued to give him support.

Calls for more street protests present the government with a serious challenge. It is eager to choke off the protest movement, but a harsh response by security forces could ignite another sustained wave of unrest. Sporadic clashes broke out in north Tehran late Monday after security forces boosted patrols, witnesses said.

Many of Tuesday's protest appeals included instructions to shift the rallies to main squares if the security presence is too strong at the first sites. They called for key opposition figures -- including Mousavi and his pro-reform election rival, Mahdi Karroubi -- to join the marches. It was not immediately clear whether they would attend.

In a sign of Iran's seemingly unbridgeable rifts, both men were among the list of no-shows at Monday's ceremony with the supreme leader. Karroubi, in a newspaper interview published Tuesday, pledged that he and Mousavi would continue to lead the opposition to the president. "We are going to continue protesting," he said in the interview with the Spanish daily El Pais. "We are never going to cooperate with this government. We don't want to harm it but we are going to criticize its actions. We are not going to help it in any way."

On Monday, Khamenei bluntly told the opposition and others who have said the election was marred by abuses that they had simply failed. "This election was a test. People passed the test ... and some of the elites failed. This election made some (figures) the losers," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

The ruling establishment has sought to hobble the opposition by bringing many of its prominent figures before a court in a mass trial. More than 100 activists and reformist political figures are being tried for allegedly supporting the postelection unrest. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad's main conservative election challenger, Mohsen Rezaei, demanded trials for those accused of killing protesters. Pro-reform groups, including clerics, have condemned the mass trial as a sham and said confessions from two prominent activists had been coerced.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran's Ahmadinejad dismisses controversial VP
2009-07-26
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finally gave in to an order from the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dismissed his top deputy after remaining defiant for five days.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, a top Ahmadinejad aide, as saying that Esfandiar Rahim Mashai is no longer the first vice president.

The aide said that following the public statement of supreme leader Khamenei's order to dismiss the president's choice, "Mashai doesn't consider himself first vice president," Hashemi told IRNA.

Mashai stirred controversy among hardliners by once saying Iranians were friends to the Israelis. Ahmadinejad resisted pressure to dismiss him for weeks.
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