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.
