JUDICIARY CHIEF THROWS HAT IN RING

Dubai, May 15: Iran’s judiciary chief, a hardline cleric linked to mass executions in 1988, registered on Saturday to run in the Islamic Republic’s presidential election next month, a vote that comes as negotiators struggle to resuscitate Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The cleric, Ebrahim Raisi, is among the more prominent hopefuls — he garnered nearly 16 million votes in the 2017 election. He lost that race to Iran’s relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani. Raisi’s close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his popularity could make him a favorite in the election. of Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council for two years, and as a senior nuclear negotiator. He later became speaker of the Iranian parliament for some 12 years, stepping down in May 2020. Larijani’s family includes prominent members of Iran’s theocracy, with his cleric brother once serving as the head of the Iranian judiciary.