Khamenei Publicly Rebukes Zarif

In a public address to the nation, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly rebuked Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif over last week’s leaked audio file in which Zarif criticised former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, which he described as a “repetition of our enemy’s views”. Khamenei reiterated that Soleimani was “martyred” because he upset the plans of Iran’s enemies and added that “we should not talk in a way that makes our enemies happy”.  Khamenei finished with another stern rebuke, saying “everyone must know that foreign policy is not determined in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Iran or anywhere in the world.” 

Watch Khamenei’s address on his website

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Two New Candidates Announce Campaigns

Two new candidates announced they are running for President. Former IRGC and Basij officer Ali-Reza Afshar became the latest military candidate; as the former head of Iran’s Election Headquarters, Afshar has insider knowledge of the workings of the electoral system. The second candidate, Sadegh Khalilian, became the latest Ahmadinejad Era cabinet member to nominate; Khalilian has put forward a conservative anti-corruption economic platform alongside a general repudiation of the current administration’s policies.

Read about Ali-Reza Afshar at FarsNews
Read about Sadegh Khalilian at ISNA

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Guardian Council: Women Can Run for President

Spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, stated that women are permitted according to the law to run for President, and that they were subject to the same vetting of candidates as men. However, Kadkhodaei’s comments were ambiguous, because he only said that women were allowed to register to run for President. While this implies a woman can become President, he stopped short of explicitly saying so. 

Read more at Eghtesad News

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Saeed Mohammad Says Trolls Sabotaging his Social Media

Saeed Mohammad argued that systematic attempts to sabotage his campaign on social media were a regular occurrence, stating that in one 24 hour period, 350 social media pages supportive of his campaign were removed. Mohammad even said an individual in northern Iran pretended to be his campaign manager and had a number of supportive pages removed. Mohammad’s campaign have been complaining about his pages being removed from social media for more than a month, and previously blamed foreign actors such as American and Israeli troll armies. This is the first time he has directly blamed actors in Iran. 

Read more at Didbaninran

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IRIB Restricts Live Broadcasts of Rouhani

Iran’s public broadcaster, the IRIB, will limit live broadcasts of President Rouhani due to the sensitivity around the election atmosphere. After two days of negotiation with President Rouhani, the IRIB said it will permit only three types of live broadcast: Rouhani addressing the Cabinet, Presidential announcements at the COVID headquarters and “Inauguration” Thursdays (where the President announces large national projects). 

Read more at Jamaran

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Reform Front Announces List; Immediately Runs into Problems

The Reform Front released an initial list of 13 candidates that they will endorse in this election (in order): Mohammad-Javad Zarif; Eshaq Jahangiri; Mostafa Tajzadeh; Masoud Pezeshkian; Mohammad-Reza Aref; Mohsen Hashemi; Mohammad Shariatmadari; Mostafa Kavakebian; Mahmoud Sadeghi; Zahra Shojaei; Shahindokht Molaverdi; Abbas Akhundi; and Sadegh Kharazi. Among the names are two women (Shojaei and Molaverdi) and three members of the Rouhani administration not associated with the Reform movement (Zarif, Jahangiri and Molaverdi). Already, the list has run into trouble. In addition to Zarif’s ongoing problems, Abbas Akhundi was named as a defendant in an indictment for a corruption trial, the news of which was published 30 minutes before the release of the Reform Front’s candidate list.

Read more at Borna
Read about Abbas Akhundi’s indictment at Tasnim

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Rahami to Reformist Front: Don’t Endorse Me

In protest of the Reformist Front’s method for selecting candidates, Mohsen Rahami demanded that the organisation not endorse his campaign. In denouncing factionalism, Rahami said that “I will inform the people of my vision for the presidency in the coming days, and I will leave the judgment to them” before stating that he would also provide more detail regarding why he is “adopting this policy” soon. 

Read more at IRNA

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Jahangiri Appeal: Vote or Surrender your City

In a Clubhouse q-and-a, First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri encouraged all Iranians to vote (while being ambiguous about which election – Presidential or city council) saying “citizens know each other by the ballot box, and if they do not participate, the city may fall”. On the question of whether Jahangiri himself would run for President, he said “I never said I wouldn’t run, but I am a subordinate”, meaning that he cannot make the decision without the approval of more senior members of the government. The Clubhouse session was hosted by Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, who invited Jahangiri to Clubhouse, and attended by senior nuclear negotiator, Ali Akbar Salehi. 

Read the full run down of the Clubhouse session at IRNA

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Rezaei Formally Announces Candidacy

Former IRGC officer and veteran of election campaigns Mohsen Rezaei announced on Twitter that he will be running for President. In the same tweet, he also expressed support for Saeed Mohammad and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, two other conservative candidates in this election. Rezaei’s linking of himself to these candidates is part of a strategy to win over their supporters so that they will direct their votes to him in the case that either Mohammad or Ghazizadeh is disqualified. 

Read more on KhabarOnline

 

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