Iranian clerical regime has one less controversy to deal with as Mr. Mashaii resigned from his post of first Vice President. As discussed in my previous post, Mr. Mashaii was President Ahmadinejad’s pick, but he was severely criticized by the clerical regime for stating in 2008 that Iranians are friends with Israelis. The resignation was inevitable given that Ayatollah Khamenei had directly asked for Mr. Mashaii’s removal. Still there was considerable delay between the dismissal and Ayatollah Khamenei’s letter asking for Mr. Mashaii’s dismissal. As reported in this Tehran Times article, members of the Parliament described Ahmadinejad’s delay to dismiss Mr. Mashaii as a “political misbehavior.”
While Ahmadinejad caved into pressure from hard-line clerics and the country’s supreme leader, the reformists are still refusing to give in to the regime. Despite the government’s best effort to put an end to the presidential election dispute, the issue refuses to die down. As reported in this New York Times article, the leaders of Iran’s opposition movement sent an open letter of protest to the country’s highest religious authorities on Saturday. They complained against the state for using “illegal, immoral and irreligious methods” in the crackdown following last month’s disputed presidential election and called for the release of hundreds of people arrested since.