A conservative ally of Iran's supreme leader was named Monday as Isfahan's new Friday prayer leader, filling a post left vacant in July by a resignation that rocked the Islamic Republic.
In a decree carried by state radio, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Ayatollah Yussef Tabatabai-Nejad, his former personal representative to Syria, to the influential position in the central city, AFP said.
The post had been held by Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, a supporter of reformist President Mohammad Khatami who resigned in July with a fiery attack on the Islamic regime and its dominant conservative clergy.
Taheri listed "deception, unemployment, inflation, the diabolical gap between the rich and poor, bribery, cheating, growing drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities and the failure of the political structure" of the regime as his reasons for stepping down.
Taheri, aged 76, also expressed his strong support for dissident cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was once the chosen successor of the Islamic regime's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but is now under house arrest.
The tone of his letter towards the nation's leaders was unprecedented since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and led to the Supreme Council on National banning press coverage "in favor of or against" Taheri's resignation.
In contrast, state radio repeatedly broadcast Khamenei's reply, which called for calm and implicitly blamed the Khatami government for the nation's woes. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
