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Summary
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has fired Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. Ahmadinejad appointed head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, a close ally to the president, as the caretaker for the ministry. I thank you and appreciate the work and the services you have rendered during your tenure in the foreign ministry, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in the directive carried by IRNA. I hope your efforts receive a praise by God and you will be successful in the rest of your life at the service of people of our Islamic nation, he added. Mottaki, a career diplomat, was appointed to the post of foreign minister in August 2005. He is currently in Senegal on an official visit.
