Iran hardliners force deputy foreign minister to resign

Iran's newly appointed deputy foreign minister has resigned under pressure from hardliners who view him as part of a movement seeking to weaken the role of Iran's powerful Muslim clerics, reports say.

The dispute over Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh is part of a burgeoning power struggle involving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the parliament and the country's clergy. While Malekzadeh faces corruption charges, the opposition to his appointment appeared more ideological.

In his resignation letter addressed to the foreign minister on Tuesday, Malekzadeh denounced his critics. "Despite dastardly manipulations and plentiful injustices done against me, I can't accept that you suffer from unjust pressures because of me anymore," the official IRNA news agency quoted Malekzadeh as saying.

Malekzadeh, who has denied the corruption allegations, is an ally of the president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

Mashaei is sharply opposed by hardliners who accuse him of seeking to undermine Iran's ruling system. He has been described by clerics as the head of a "deviant current" that seeks to elevate the values of pre-Islamic Persia and promote nationalism at the cost of clerical rule.

Ahmadinejad has strongly defended Mashaei, whose daughter is married to the president's son, saying the attacks against Mashaei are actually directed at him.

Iranian intelligence and members of parliament had demanded that the foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi fire Malekzadeh. Salehi had said that he would fire Malekzadeh only if he was convicted. Malekzadeh has denied the allegations.

Earlier on Tuesday, 33 Iranian legislators signed a motion and presented it to the parliament to impeach Salehi if he failed to dismiss Malekzadeh.

Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to set up Mashaei, his chief of staff, or another loyalist to succeed him in 2013.

Ahmadinejad and Mashaei also have been accused of seeking to control the next parliament by manipulating parliamentary elections slated for March 2012.

In another parliamentary dispute, legislators rejected Ahmadinejad's nominee for the post of minister of sport and youth.

Source: guardian.co.uk