Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finally gave in to an order from the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dismissed his top deputy after remaining defiant for five days.The official IRNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, a top Ahmadinejad aide, as saying that Esfandiar Rahim Mashai is no longer the first vice president.
The aide said that following the public statement of supreme leader Khamenei's order to dismiss the president's choice, "Mashai doesn't consider himself first vice president," Hashemi told IRNA.
Mashai stirred controversy among hardliners by once saying Iranians were friends to the Israelis. Ahmadinejad resisted pressure to dismiss him for weeks.