In a meeting with university students, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that in his statement last year, that the next President should be a “young hezbollahi” overseeing a “young Revolutionary government”, he did not mean “a government in which all members are in the age group of 30 to 35 years”. Khamenei’s statement last year has been seized upon by supporters of Saeed Mohammad as an endorsement of their candidate. Khamenei seemed to distance his words from Saeed Mohammad while also bringing his statements in line with the Guardian Council’s recent changes to the vetting of candidates which prohibits registrations of people under 40.
