TEHRAN, 29 March 2005 — A security adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said yesterday he had won the backing of hard-line parties for his presidential election bid, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The hard-line support for Ali Larijani, who has spoken out against Tehran’s efforts to defuse international concern about its nuclear program through diplomacy, automatically makes him a leading contender for the June 17 vote.
Moderate conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has also hinted he may make a comeback bid for the job he held from 1989 to 1997. Incumbent Mohammad Khatami, a pro-reform cleric, is ineligible to stand for a third consecutive term.
