Jalili Announces Intention to Run in Iran’s Presidential Elections

Ahmadinejad speaks to Jalili on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Leadership Council of Experts in Tehran on Monday. (ILNA)
Ahmadinejad speaks to Jalili on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Leadership Council of Experts in Tehran on Monday. (ILNA)
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Jalili Announces Intention to Run in Iran’s Presidential Elections

Ahmadinejad speaks to Jalili on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Leadership Council of Experts in Tehran on Monday. (ILNA)
Ahmadinejad speaks to Jalili on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Leadership Council of Experts in Tehran on Monday. (ILNA)

Saeed Jalili, the representative of the Iranian leader in the Supreme National Security Council, confirmed his intention to run in the presidential elections scheduled for June 28, to choose a successor to late President Ebrahim Raisi.

The Fars new agency reported that Jalili told four deputies from the city of Mashhad that he seriously intends to join the electoral race. The politician was a candidate in the previous elections, but withdrew in favor of Raisi.

The Iranian hardliner will be the first candidate in the early elections, following the death of Raisi in a helicopter crash, on his way back from a trip to the Azerbaijan border.

Jalili was responsible for the nuclear negotiations when he was Secretary-General of the Supreme National Security Council under the rule of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The powers of the negotiations were then held by the Council before they were transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon after former President Hassan Rouhani came to office in 2013.

Confirmations of Jalili running in the elections came the day after statements made by his ally, Ahmadinejad, whose candidacy was rejected by the Guardian Council in 2021, and before that in 2017.

Ahmadinejad told a group of supporters on Saturday that he was mulling whether to run for president or not.

The Nournews agency, the platform of the Supreme National Security Council, expected that Ahmadinejad would submit a request to run for the presidency, “even though he is sure that the Guardian Council will reject his eligibility to run again.”

The conservatives are also discussing the possibility of nominating two generals in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohsen Rezaei and Saeed Mohammad, in addition to the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as well as the Mayor of Tehran, Ali Reza Zakani.

The Tasnim news agency pointed to the potential candidacy of Parviz Fattah, who heads the Imam’s Implementation Committee, which reports to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, as well as the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, hardliner Mehrdad Badrbash, who has close ties to the IRGC.

Other media reports stated that the supporters of former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are pushing towards the nomination of one of the following political figures: former diplomat Mohammad Sadr; Majeed Ansari, Rouhani’s Vice President; Reza Ardakanian, Minister of Energy in Rouhani’s government; and Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Iranian Atomic Organization and former Foreign Minister.



Trump Picks Massad Boulos to Serve as Adviser on Arab, Middle Eastern Affairs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs alongside Massad Boulos (The AP)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs alongside Massad Boulos (The AP)
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Trump Picks Massad Boulos to Serve as Adviser on Arab, Middle Eastern Affairs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs alongside Massad Boulos (The AP)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs alongside Massad Boulos (The AP)

US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos would serve as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social. Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders during the election campaign, Reuters reported.

It was the second time in recent days that Trump chose the father-in-law of one of his children to serve in his administration.

On Saturday, Trump said that he had picked his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, to serve as US ambassador to France.

In recent months, Boulos campaigned for Trump to drum up Lebanese and Arab American support, even as the US-backed Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Boulos has powerful roots in both countries.

His father and grandfather were both figures in Lebanese politics and his father-in-law was a key funder of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party aligned with Hezbollah.

His son Michael and Tiffany Trump were married in an elaborate ceremony at Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago Club in November 2022, after getting engaged in the White House Rose Garden during Trump's first term.

Boulos has been in touch with interlocutors across Lebanon's multipolar political world, three sources who spoke to him in recent months say, a rare feat in Lebanon, where decades-old rivalries between factions run deep.

Boulos is a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian ally of Hezbollah and its candidate for Lebanon's presidency. He is also in touch with the Lebanese Forces Party, a vehemently anti-Hezbollah Christian faction, the sources say, and has ties to independent lawmakers.