Iran’s new VP denies rumors of resignation

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial choice for vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, denied media reports he had quit as a group of reformist clerics called for a referendum over the country’s election process.

"Certain Internet sites published a report about Mr. Mashaie's resignation as first vice president in a coordinated action aimed at tarnishing the government," said a statement on his personal website.

"This is a lie, and these rumors have been spread by the enemies... of the government," it said.

On Sunday, state-owned English-language channel Press TV reported that Mashaie, a close aide to Ahmadinejad, had resigned three days after his appointment, which was strongly opposed by hardliners among the newly-re-elected president'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."

His nomination as first vice president had ruffled feathers among hardliners deeply sensitive to any breach of the longstanding taboo on relations of any kind with arch foe Israel.

The resistance to Mashaie's appointment is 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."

During his first four-year term, Ahmadinejad unleashed numerous anti-Israel tirades, calling for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map and describing the Holocaust as a myth.

Certain Internet sites published a report about Mr. Mashaie's resignation as first vice president in a coordinated action aimed at tarnishing the government

Statement by Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie

Seeking referendum

A group of reformist clerics in Iran founded by former President Mohammad Khatami called on Monday for a referendum over the election process following last month's bitterly disputed presidential race.

"As millions of Iranians have lost confidence in the electoral process, the Association of Combatant Clerics insists on the organization of a referendum... by independent bodies," it said in a statement.

It did not specify what question should be put to voters and under the Iranian constitution only the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can organize a referendum.

The clerical body also said it supported powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who made a hard-hitting address on Friday criticizing last month's election and the subsequent crackdown on the opposition.