Monday, November 28, 2011

Iran’s New Cultural Commissioner – Mashaie Snubbed

Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency reported today that President Ahmadinejad has appointed his minister of culture, Mohammad Hosseini, to concurrently serve as the government’s Cultural Commissioner.

The president’s controversial chief of staff, Esfaniar Rahim Moshaie, headed the Cultural Commission until now. The country’s ruling conservatives regard Mashaie as the leader of the “deviationists.” The derogatory term is used to describe Mashaie and other political allies of the president.

Ahmadinejad has been under intense pressure to remove Mashaie from all positions he held, particularly from the powerful post of the chief of staff. But there were no indications, however, that Ahmadinejad was also removing Mashaie from that post.

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