IRAN DROPS HARD-LINER

Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, submitting his new cabinet to parliament Saturday, ignored a plea by a majority of deputies to retain anti-Western hard-line Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi. The Iranian news agency IRNA said Mr. Mohtashemi, regarded as the leading Islamic purist in the government, has been replaced by Abdollah Nouri, formerly government representative with the Revolutionary Guards.