Tehran, January 03: Former advisor to the Iranian president on culture and media affairs Mehdi Kalhor has confirmed the termination of his cooperation with the president along with 13 other advisors.
“Yesterday in a decree 13 presidential advisors and I were appreciated for our services and were notified that our cooperation with President Ahmadinejad has ended,” Mehr news agency quoted Kalhor as saying.
In a letter of appreciation, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thanked 14 of his advisors for “their compassionate and effective services.”
The advisors, who were mentioned in the letter, are Mojtaba Rahmandoust, Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina, Mohammad Reza Etemadian, Seyyed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, Mohammad Sattari Vafaei, Mahdi Chamran, Mohammad Rouyanian, Ali Montazeri, Mahdi Shahid Kalhor, Ali Asghar Zarei, Mahdi Mostafavi, Davoud Danesh Jafari, Ali Akbari and Sousan Keshavarz.
“I had personally presented my retirement request to the president three months ago and the decree of termination of my cooperation with the Presidential Office was issued yesterday,” Kalhor noted.
“Of course in the decree, President Ahmadinejad had warmly hailed the services of his fellow friends,” the former presidential advisor continued.
Kalhor, however, stressed that the decree only included the advisory role of the individuals and not their other positions.
He further explained that he really did not know the reason behind President Ahmadinejad’s decision.
The recent removal seems to be part of the Iranian president’s initiative to reshuffle his cabinet and staff.
Earlier in mid December, the Iranian chief executive ousted former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and appointed Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi as the country’s acting foreign minister.
——–Agencies