The World : Iran Prime Minister Quits

Hussein Moussavi resigned after seven years as Iran’s prime minister, but will remain as a caretaker premier until a successor is named, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The agency, in a broadcast monitored in Cyprus, quoted the daily Jomhori Eslami newspaper in Tehran, which published the text of Moussavi’s letter of resignation to President Ali Khamenei. Moussavi wrote that he believed eight of his Cabinet members would fail to win a vote of confidence in the 270-seat Parliament, leaving him unable to function. Moussavi, a radical who has sought major economic changes in the face of bitter opposition from conservative clerics, won a vote of confidence earlier this year but Parliament deferred a decision on the Cabinet.