Ebrahim Raisi held a rally in Ahvaz, Khuzestan, an oil rich city in the south west of Iran. Notification of the rally went out on text message a few hours before, calling supporters to gather at 8pm at Takhti Stadium. Raisi’s headquarters said that the rally was held in accordance to COIVD rules, although images and footage from the rally seem to contradict this. Further north, in Hamedan, disqualified candidate Rostam Ghasemi held rallies in three towns on Raisi’s behalf. Ghasemi, like another disqualified candidate, Saeed Mohammad, it believed to have put his support behind Raisi’s campaign in exchange for a future senior role.

Read about the calling of Raisi’s rally at Tasnim.
See images of Raisi’s rally on Twitter.
Read about Ghasemi’s campaigning at Tasnim

In a sign of continuing tension between the military and civilian arms of Iranian government, Rostam Ghasemi, who is a deputy economic directory of the Qods Force, criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs, saying “you have forgotten the policies of the Revolution”. Ghasemi had made comments earlier in the week regarding an Iranian military presence in Yemen which Foreign Affairs quickly denied, saying Iran’s support was only diplomatic.

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Referring to an assassination attempt made against him last month in Lebanon, Rostam Ghasemi said that “if I was afraid of assassination, I would not have worked on the front lines for the Axis of Resistance for 7 years”, referring to Iran’s alliance with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. Ghasemi emphasised that knowledge of the world outside of Iran was important for a President, and therefore he was appropriately experienced.

Read more on Tasnim