Ex-parl speaker for Iran prez poll

Tehran, May 15: A former speaker of Iran’s parliament registered Saturday to run in the Islamic Republic’s upcoming presidential election, becoming the first high-profile candidate to potentially back the policies of the outgoing administration that reached Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

The decision by Ali Larijani, long a prominent conservative voice who later allied himself with Iran’s relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, came on the last day of registration for the June 18 election. While a panel overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ultimately will approve candidates, Larijani has maintained close ties to the cleric over his decades in government.

Journalists in Tehran watched Larijani, 63, register at the Interior Ministry, which oversees elections. He waved to onlookers after completing the process, his face covered by a blue surgical mask as Iran continues to battle the Coronavirus pandemic. Larijani, a former commander in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, previously served as the minister of culture and Islamic guidance and as the head of Iran’s state broadcaster.

Under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he served as secretary