Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial choice for first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, has said he no longer wants the job, state-run English-language channel Press TV reported. Press TV sourced its report to the education ministry-funded news agency, Pana, and gave no other details of Mashaie's decision. Mashaie's appointment was strongly opposed by hardliners among Ahmadinejad's own support base. Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, is a controversial figure who last year earnt the wrath of hardliners, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for saying Iran is a “friend of the Israeli people.” On Friday, Ahmadinejad announced Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie's appointment, replacing Parviz Davoudi. “It is imperative to terminate the appointment of Mashaie as first vice president in order to respect the wishes of the majority of the people,” said Hossein Shariatmadari, managing director of the hardline Kayhan newspaper who was appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “When people found out about the appointment, they viewed this move as one taken not just in bad taste... but as one which shows indifference (towards them),” he wrote in an editorial. Ahmad Khatami, a leading hardline cleric and a Friday prayer leader in Tehran, also slammed Mashaie's appointment. “This appointment has been made in defiance to the members of the Assembly of Experts, the majlis (parliament) and several elite who have often mentioned that the post is a sensitive one,” Khatami was quoted as saying in Jam
