By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has replaced the country's key oil and industry ministers, a major cabinet reshuffle widely seen Monday as increasing his control over industries that are the source of most of the country's revenues.
Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Mahaneh and Industry Minister Ali Reza Tahmasebi have resigned and been replaced by caretaker ministers, the official IRNA news agency said late Sunday. But Iran's major newspapers said Monday the two had effectively been dismissed by Ahmadinejad.
State-run media gave no reason for the alleged dismissals and only carried statements from the president, who named the head of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Gholam Hossein Nozari, as oil caretaker minister, and a Teheran chain store manager, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, as industry caretaker minister.