17 July 2009 - 07H21
Mashaie appointed Iran's new first vice president
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed his controversial aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as the country's new first vice president, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.
"Ahmadinejad has announced that Mashaie will serve as the new first vice president in the next government," IRNA said.
Mashaie a year ago was severely criticised by the country's hardliners and even rapped by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for saying Iran was a "friend of the Israeli people."
He returned to the theme again in August, saying he had "no hostility against the Israeli people."
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