Iran’s Tourism Organization to Be Taken off Presidency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian MPs ratified single urgency for the introduction of a bill to take away responsibility for Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) from the president’s office.

The lawmakers will discuss the bill’s details at a later, unspecified date.

If it becomes law, the ICHHTO will be placed under the Culture Ministry.

The move is perceived as a possible reaction to recent remarks by the department’s head and vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashayee, that Iranians were “friends of all people in the world – even Israelis.”

Mashayee’s August remarks sparked calls for his dismissal, but Ahmadinejad appears to be standing by his vice president.