VP pick in Iran tests presidential loyalty

TEHRAN, July 23 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has so far defied the supreme leader of Iran by refusing to reconsider his choice for first vice president.

Ahmadinejad appointed Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, a close adviser and relative by marriage, to replace Parviz Davoudi as the first vice president. Iran has 12 vice presidents, though only the first vice president can lead lawmakers in the absence of the president.

Rahim-Mashaei faced intense backlash over his 2008 comments that the Iranian people were the friends of Israel.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and others lashed out at those statements, giving backing to a chorus of voices calling on Ahmadinejad to reconsider the nomination.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, the interim leader of Friday prayers in Tehran, called the refusal by Ahmadinejad a test of his loyalty to Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority over Iran, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports.

The political flare-up is a sign of the growing disunity among Iran's leaders. Opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is gaining ground as a durable voice of dissent, securing the support of notable clerics and former Presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami.

The Iranian political scene was upended in the wake of the June 12 presidential election that secured a contested second term for Ahmadinejad.