Ahmadinejad appoints Iran's 1st vice president

TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed Mohammad Reza Rahimi as the new first vice president of Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad announced the appointment in a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

In his ex-cabinet, Rahimi served as the vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, who had reportedly served in other capacities earlier, such as head of the Auditory Court and governor of Kurdestan province.

In 2008, Rahim-Mashaei said that Iran is a "friend of the Israeli people," a claim which he later distanced himself from the cabinet, saying that his comments had been misinterpreted.

Ahmadinejad's earlier pick of Rahim Mashaei as the first vice president caused a one-week political bickering in Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the strong supporter of Ahmadinejad in the country's presidential election disputes, rejected his previous choice and described Mashaei's appointment in his July 18 letter to Ahmadinejad as "contrary to your own and your government's interests."