Moderate Named 1st Vice President in Iran
Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani strengthened the hand of his moderate faction Monday by naming Hassan Habibi, a French-trained former justice minister, as first vice president.
The appointment was made two days after Rafsanjani named a 22-member Cabinet dominated by technocrats and excluding the anti-Western interior minister, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi.
It also ended speculation that outgoing Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi would be named to a major executive post as a concession to hard-liners.
The appointment need not be endorsed by the Parliament.
Habibi belonged to a circle of liberal intellectuals who rallied around the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the final days of his exile outside Paris in 1978 and 1979, before Khomeini returned to lead the Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy.
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