Iran's hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for president in the country's June 28 election, organized after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iran's state television reported on Sunday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters
Iran's hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for president in the country's June 28 election, organized after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iran's state television reported on Sunday.
However he could be barred from the race: the country's cleric-led Guardian Council will vet candidates, and publish the list of qualified ones on June 11.
Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, was first elected as Iran's president in 2005 and stepped down because of term limits in 2013.
He was barred from standing in the 2017 election by the Guardian Council, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that entering was "not in his interest and that of the country".
A rift developed between the two after Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated checks on Khamenei's ultimate authority.
In 2018, in rare criticism directed at Khamenei, Ahmadinejad wrote to him calling for "free" elections.
Khamenei had backed Ahmadinejad after his 2009 re-election triggered protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, rattling the ruling theocracy, before security forces led by the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stamped out the unrest.
Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Parisa Hafezi
Abbas Araqchi, Iran's seasoned top diplomat, faces one of his most delicate challenges ever this weekend as he prepares to lead talks with the U.S. to secure a new nuclear deal and avert a military strike against the Islamic Republic.
Iran is giving talks with its arch foe the United States this weekend "a genuine chance", the Iranian foreign ministry's spokesperson posted on X on Friday.
The United States and Iran are due to hold talks on Saturday on Tehran's nuclear program as Britain, France and Germany consider whether to trigger a restoration of sanctions on Iran at the United Nations before a 2015 nuclear deal expires in October.
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