State-run media reported late Sunday that Mehrdad Bazrpash has been removed from his post as the vice president. He was also in charge of youth affairs and the head of the Saipa auto manufacturing company.
The regime’s media outlets cited Bazrpash’s conflicts with Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the director of Ahmadinejad’s office, as a contributing factor for the dismissal.
The report came on the heel of an abrupt removal of Manouchehr Mottaki, the mullahs’ foreign minister, while he was on an official visit to Africa, and is a public display of the regime’s inability to control fatal and growing rifts within its ranks.
According to state-run media, following Bazrpash’s dismissal, Ahmadinejad tried to cajole him by appointing him as his social affairs advisor instead, but an irritated Bazrpash refused the offer and reportedly angrily stormed out of the presidential office.