Almost 40 days have passed since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s close companion, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, was disqualified for candidacy in presidential election and the president’s silence so far has surprised many.

His controversial and exaggerating support for Mashaei, especially in the last six months prior to the election was to an extent which made many expect an eruptive reaction from him.

Mashaei is Ahmadinejad’s longtime close friend whose actions, as many critics say, decreased the president’s popularity. He has had overstatements and exorbitant talks about sacred principals of Islam and Shiism and is also charged with political and economical corruption, but Ahmadinejad has insisted many times that “I am Mashaei, and Mashaei is me”. Upon his disqualification, the president said he would pursuit the case to the last minute via the leader and hoped the issue would be solved.

“The president met the leader tree times and requested for his special order [on the issue] but the leader did not accept his requests,” said Haj Sadeghi, the deputy of the representative of the Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

It is not clear if Ahmadinejad did other things too but in a gathering held on June 24, when he spoke to his supporters he said sarcastically, “They omitted a number of the pure and the believer and many were sad and contacted me regularly,” He did not mention any names but political observers say he was referring to disqualification of Mashaei.        

The president’s supporters and even many of his critics expected the president to attack the main organizations of the system, especially the Guardian Council, but unbelievably he did nothing and pretended to obey the law.

Ahmadinejad’s “mere” silence was so strange that led political observers make two analyses.

A small group of observers who believe in the first analysis still are waiting for Ahmadinejad’s political attack. They believe the president is adding to his indirect protest with suspending his provincial trips and doing nothing for the economy. These analysts say the president is angry about the big defeat of his men in the presidential and city council elections and the cases against him in the judiciary and has a special plan to punish his critics even if only one day remains from his administration.

But the second group of analysts rejects the first analysis and makes a totally different argument in response to it. They say during recent years, Dr. Ahmadinejad and his friends have reached to this conclusion that standing against original and principal organizations of the Islamic Republic and creating tensions in the country would lead to a decline in their popular votes and omission from the country’s political system. According to them, for several reasons it is not expected from Ahmadinejad to make any upheaval in the remaining days of his presidency:

1. Considering the two orders by the leader, one regarding the vice presidency of Mashaei and the other regarding the ministry of information, Ahmadinejad thought he could make the system back off but his prediction turned wrong. He also has seen that even during the 2009 protests and riots the system did not back off from its position and did not nullify the votes so he would not make the same mistake over Mashaei’s disqualification.
2. Inability to control economic problems that led to increased financial pressure against the people, paying little attention to the sacred, and disagreeing with some rules and leader’s advices weaken his social standing. The president cannot make tension in the society when he does not have popular support.
3. The president does not want to make himself a center of hatred forever with making a not very useful tension in the country
4. He wants to remain as a peaceful and oppressed figure in the mind of the people, leaving good memories behind himself and giving himself the chance of returning to top positions again.
5. He does not want to compensate the chance of getting away from the charges against him and his friends in several economic and political suits for a political upheaval which does not have a clear result.
6. A political attack might destroy the president’s critics but its costs would be more than its benefits and it would be more like a suicidal action and not a contemplated action.
7. If Ahmadinejad wanted to create tension he would do it before the election but his silence then showed he was not willing to do so.

Based on these reasons the second analysis seems to be closer to reality and thus we should not expect more tensions and upheavals from the president.

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Many of the country’s top officials have already cast their votes with the Leader of the Islamic Republic being the first. He urged the nation to go to the polls early. In response to remarks by a American National Security Council official, the leader stated that the Iranian nation would not be influenced by such remarks and that they would act according to their own beliefs and needs.

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“In this meeting we are to clarify the procedures of the election [for the candidates] and to hear comments of the candidates,” said Kadkhodaei in a presser just before the meeting.

While the representative of Gholam Ali Hadad Adel was absent at today’s meeting. A few hours after the meeting Gholam Ali Hadad Adel issued a statement announcing his quit from the election race in favor of the “Prinipalist Candidates”. He didn’t mention name of any of the candidates.

The spokesman of the Guardian Council also denied the reports on the possibility of reconsidering qualifications of the reformist candidate Hasan Rowhani.

 Iranian Fars News Agency reported earlier today that the Guardian Council will reconsider Rowhani’s qualifications in an urgent meeting today.

“We may give notices to the candidates about some aspects of their campaigning but we not review the qualifications,” Kadkhodaei said.

At the beginning of the meeting, the represantatives of the candidates delivered a short statement about explaining their candidates’ stance on procedures of the election.

“I appreciate the Guardian Council,” said Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the representative of Rowhani, “It can avoid any misunderstanding if we the representatives of the candidates be present during sealing of ballot boxes,” he said.

The campaing manager of another reformist candidate, Mohammad Reza Aref also said they will be committed to the law in every step of the election.

“Our slogan is commitment to the law so we accept the role of the Guardian Council in vetting the qualifications and counting of the ballots,” he said.

Shahin Mohammad-Sadeghi a representative of Ali Akbar Velayati also said his candidate is committed to the law and will abide any decision by the Guardian Council.

Ali Bagheri the representative of Saeed Jalili also underlined the “important role of the Guardian Council in the last elections” and said: “This initiative by the Guardian Council to have closely interaction with the candidates shows the council has a serious approach [to have a fair election].”

Talking to the journalists, Bagheri denied the possibility of Jalili quitting on behalf of any other Principalist candidates.

“Saeed Jalili will not quit from the race. His popularity is boosting after the TV debates,” he said.

The representatives of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mohammad Gharazi and Mohsen Rezaei endorsed the role of the Guardian Council and wished a fair election with a high turn-out.

Iranians will cast their votes on behalf of one the 8 presidential candidates on June 14. 

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An analysis based on the results of three surveys conducted by three reliable Iranian polling centers shows that none of Iran’s presidential candidates would gain enough votes to win outright on the first ballot.

More than 50 million Iranians will head to the polls on June 14th to determine Iran’s next president. Iran’s Guardian Council has approved eight candidates to compete in the poll. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote a runoff is scheduled to be held a week later.

According to the Analysis seen by Iran’sView, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, mayor of Tehran and a Principalist candidate, would win almost 27% of the votes and would be one of two competitors in any run off and the second competitor would be either Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator or Ali Akbar Velayati a top advisor to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei.

11.7% of voters surveyed decided to vote in favor of Saeed Jalili and 11.3% for Ali Akbar Velayati, both Principalist candidates.

A similar survey conducted in the 2009 presidential elections gave accurate results.

This poll was carried out in late April on more than 400,000 people in 31 provinces throughout Iran.

More than 51% of eligible voters have decided to participate in the presidential elections. One out of five voters surveyed said they chose not to participate in the elections.

More than 56% of voters said they will vote for one of the four Principalist candidates.

Beside, Ghalibaf, Jalili and Velayati,  Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, another Principalist candidate would gain 6.7%, Mohsen Rezaei and  Mohammad Gharazi two independent candidates would have respectively 6.7% and 0.7% of the ballots.

Of Iran’s two candidates in the Reformists camp 5.6% of voters surveyed said they would vote for Mohammad Reza Aref and 3.1% would vote for Hassan Rowhani.

 Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former two-term president of Iran was the most popular candidate associated with the reformists but he was disqualified by Iran’s Guardian Council due to his old age and therefore his inability to take the responsibility of being president.

The results of the surveys have not been publicized so far, but Iran’sView received an analysis paper based on the three reliable surveys.

The post Iran’s Election: Poll Results Suggest a 50% turnout and A Run Off Voting first appeared on .

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei said “everyone should try to have an enthusiastic election with attendance of public. Since the Islamic revolution, strength and power of the Islamic regime was based on the support of the people.”

“All of presidential candidates reiterated on their commitment to the law,” said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with members of Iran’s Majlis on Wednsday.

“[We] should appreciate all of candidates and especially those who did not qualified [to run for president], but chose to abide by the law,” he said.

Observers in Tehran believe that the today’s remarks by the Iran’s supreme leader mean that he will not re-install important disqualified candidates, such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Some political analysts believed Ayatollah Khamenei will use his authority to re-qualify the 78 year old former two-term president of Iran who disqualified by the Guardian Council due to his old age and inability in taking responsibility of the president.

Iran’s leader has called on all presidential candidates to be sincere and provide accurate information in their campaigns.

“The gentlemen have very important duties. They should be careful to not articulate anything that comes to mouth just to draw attentions.”

“The presidential candidates should only say the realities about the current situation and about themselves,” he said.

Denying allegations of leader’s support from a specific candidate, he said: “These [allegations] are false and no one knows who the leader will vote for.”

“The leader has only one vote as the other people,” he reiterated and dismissed western media propaganda about leader’s opinions. “The enemies put this propaganda on their agenda because of their known goals but the Islamic regime will stay on its path regardless of such propaganda.”

Iranians will go to the polls in the nation’s 11th presidential election on June 14.

The post Iran’s Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei Appreciates Law-abiding Disqualified Candidates first appeared on .

Delivering a speech to the graduated students of the Imam Hossein Military Academy in Tehran, he said: “A high turnout in the Iran election would be costly for them (US).”

“People vote for those that work for the national esteem, resistance against enemies and making Iran a model for world oppressed,” he said.

“[No candidates] should show green light to internal or external enemies.”

“It is almost 34 years that US officials use propaganda [against Iran’ elections] and each time Iranian people punch them in the mouth [by way of who they choose to vote for],” he said.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry on a visit to Israel on Friday criticized the Guardian Council, Iran’s highest electoral supervisory body according to the Constitution, for not approving hundreds of candidates.

Kerry also accused the Guardian Council of choosing candidates that represent the interests of the Iranian establishment.

One day later, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that according to the Algiers Accords, the United States has agreed not to meddle in Iran’s internal affairs.

“The United States’ support of democracy is just a subterfuge and is all a show. It would be in Washington’s interest to abide by international law and to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, “he said on Saturday.

“Those objecting to Iran’s Election mechanism have Guantanamo prison and drones over the rural parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan as blemish on their face””Those who use dubious money or the public money cannot win the public trust, “Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Advising people who to choose their ideal candidate he said: “People vote for those that work for the national esteem, resistance against enemies and making Iran a model for world oppressed.”

“The candidates’ slogans should be in order to consolidate the proud-making, proper and wise stances of the Islamic Republic regime.”

The post Iran’s Leader Gives Election Indicators, Slams US Interference first appeared on .

Presidential hopeful Saeed Jalili said in his first campaign speech on Friday that he will continue “Iran’s foreign policy of seeking to extend the influence of Islam in the world.”

“Imam Khomeini’s discourse does not recognize any [super] power in the world,” he said.

Jalili who believes in reordering the administrative structure of the Islamic Republic based on the discourse of the Islamic Revolution, added “We would be unfortunate if we did not rely on Islamic thoughts.”

“Since the beginning of the 1979 Revolution, Iran’s enemies have tried to prevent the growth and formation of the Islamic revolution,” said the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council.

Wearing a Chafiye, the symbol of Palestinian solidarity and a sign of the Basiji forces (People’s ideological committees and militias) in Iran, Jalili said: “Where the Basiji way of thinking is in effect, Iran’s greedy enemies are incapable of penetration.”

Praising the discourse of the Basij he added, “Anyone who will be the president of this country should believe in this discourse and should implement the necessary programs to manifest the discourse.”

Jalili have chosen his campaign slogan as “We Are Standing: Resistance the key of Development”, which is another reference to his believe in resistance against the west and world powers. his supporters also point to his style of negotiating with world powers in the nuclear talks with the so-called group of P5+1 (US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) as a successful model of resistance for development.

Ali Bagheri, undersecretary of the Iran’s National Security Council who was chosen as the head of Jalili’s campaign also delivered a speech to the crowd of supporters of Iran’s top nuclear negotiator (Jalili) in a sport’s stadium in Tehran.

“A vote for Jalili is not a vote for an individual or an intelligent negotiator but is a vote to develop an Islamic Iran in this decade,” Bagheri said.

“If jalili becomes president, all of our enemies will be disappointed,” he said.

A number of political and cultural figures and MPs were present in this inauguration of Jalili’s campaign but the presence of Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, the minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration was interesting as president Ahmadinejad supports his top aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei who was disqualified to run for president by the Guardian Council.

Ahmadinejad later said he will ask the supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei to reinstall Mashaei.

The post Jalili To Continue Iran’s Policy of Exporting The Islamic Revolution first appeared on .

“Mr.Hashemi Rafsanjani and his campaign entered to the presidential race while committed to the law and ethics and we will continue [to respect the law],” he said.

“Hashemi was and god willing will remain as a pillar of the regime.”

Iran’s interior ministry announced on Tuesday that Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a two-term former president had been disqualified by the Guardian Council to run in next month’s election to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The list of qualified candidates also did not include the name of the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s top aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

Mashaei said he will ask the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei to help him back in the presidential race.

But Rafsanjani did not immediately comment on the decision.

Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei the spokesman of the Council in an interview with Iran’s state TV on Tuesday that according to the Iran’s presidential election law, disqualified candidates cannot appeal the decision of the Guardian Council. 

The post Hashemi Will Not Oppose His Disqualification By The Guardian Council: Campaign’s Spokesman first appeared on .

While some of prominent Iranian politicians couldn’t get qualification, the list of qualified candidates include an unknown name: Mohammad Gharazi.

Born in 1941, Gharazi has a master of Electronics Engineering from Tehran University.

He was a member of Mojahedin-E Khalgh (MEK) before the 1979 revolution and was a comrade of Imam Khomeini during his exile in France.

Although the MEK was an Iranian revolutionary organization that participated in the 1979 Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi Shah, but it entered an armed conflict with the Islamic government since June 28, 1981 when bombs were detonated at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party and Around 70 high-ranking officials were killed.

Mohmmad Gharazi apparently left the MEK before members of the organization left Iran for Iraq to fight against the regime along with Saddam Hoseing, then dictator of Iraq during 8 years of Iran-Iraq war.

Gharazi served as the minister of Oil in Mir Hossein Mousavi’s cabinet during 1981-85 and was the minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s administration since 1985 to 1997.

Being a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and a Member of Parliament are other notable facts in Gharazi’s political record.

His approval for presidential candidacy was a big surprise as he was away from Iran’s political arena for years.

He announced his campaign motto as “Anti-Inflation Administration” when he registered for the presidential election. 

The post Everything About Mohammad Gharazi, Unknown Qualified Presidential Candidate first appeared on .

“I think my disqualification is injustice and I will follow-up with the supreme leader to solve this,” Mashaei said in an interview with Fars news agency.

Mahaei’s campaign also issued a statement on his disqualification asking Ayatollah Khamenei to “prevent violation of the nation’s principal rights.”

“We also ask the president Ahamadinejad to use his position to fix any possible violation over this issue,” the statement read.

Mashaei’s chance of being disqualified by the Guardian Council was very high due to his non-Islamic remarks.

He also made controversial statements about “the end of the Islamic Era”. “The Islamic Era is over; we began the revolution in 1979 to promote our ideas to other countries, but I should say that the Islamic Era is over; this doesn’t mean that clinging to Islamic ideas will vanish, but the Era is over. Like the Era of horse riding is over, but we still have horses and horse riding and the Era of cars will come to an end, but there will still be cars and driving.” He said.

Mashaee was accused in 2011 to be part of a big banking embezzlement. One of the main suspects confessed to his hidden meeting with Mashaee. Thus far neither Mashaee, nor the administration has commented on the matter.

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