<p> Ahmadinejad said in a letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie had stepped down as first vice-president, a little over a week after he was appointed to the post, the official IRNA news agency said.<br /><br />“I am sending you the letter of Rahim Mashaie announcing he is stepping down from the post of the vice president,” Ahmadinejad wrote to Khamenei in the letter, IRNA said.<br />Rahim Mashaie’s appointment triggered opposition from hardliners and plunged Iran into a fresh political turmoil even while it remains engulfed in the worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.</p>
<p> Ahmadinejad said in a letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie had stepped down as first vice-president, a little over a week after he was appointed to the post, the official IRNA news agency said.<br /><br />“I am sending you the letter of Rahim Mashaie announcing he is stepping down from the post of the vice president,” Ahmadinejad wrote to Khamenei in the letter, IRNA said.<br />Rahim Mashaie’s appointment triggered opposition from hardliners and plunged Iran into a fresh political turmoil even while it remains engulfed in the worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.</p>