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Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric who strongly backed Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s “landslide” victory, has called on the president to reverse his decision.Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most influential religious leaders, on Wednesday joined the calls when he said in a religious decree that anyone who had said Iran was “a friend of [the] Israeli people” would “surely lack legitimacy” and such an appointment should be “corrected as soon as possible”.Fundamentalist parliamentarians have threatened the government with a vote of no confidence on other appointments unless Mr Mashaei steps aside.

Reformist papers have said that the premature appointment of a controversial figure before the government had been fully sworn in was a tactical move by the president to distract attention from the post-election protests