In an interview with Iran’sView, Sayyed Hossein Naghavi, the head of Saeed Jalili’s presidential campaign in the capital city Tehran emphasized that the candidate is completely different from his rivals and doesn’t believe in compromising with the west.
“Since Dr Jalili entered the election race his popularity rate has been on the rise. We think the rate would continue to rise until the election day,” said the spokesman of parliament’s National Security and foreign policy commission about Jalili’s popularity.
Responding to a question about the possibility of Jalili forming a coalition with other fundamentalist candidates (Ali Akbar Velayati, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf), Naghavi said Jalili has entered the race as an independent fundamentalist candidate and doesn’t represent any party or political group, adding that he will continue his independent way.
He said Jalili doesn’t feel any threat from the reformist and independent candidates, believing that he would win the election at the first round. “We don’t think about the run off voting or even the possibility of the victory of a reformist candidate at all.”
According to Naghavi, Jalili is more devoted to the discourse of the Islamic Revolution, compared to his rivals, as he believes in resistance against the west rather than compromise or submission.
Jalili also believes that religious democracy should be propounded in the world as a political system and that Iran should reduce its dependence on hegemonic systems.
Foreign groups and the enemies of Iran do not have a positive view towards Jalili, Naghavi explained further. “The hegemonic powers and the groups that have been in war with our nation since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution are frightened by Jalili’s candidacy and thus continue the character assassination against him.”
They however had a similar negative view towards Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the tenth presidential election in Iran. Until then, Mr. Ahmadinejad seemed to take positions in accordance to the preferences of the head of the country but after winning the election he did things that suggested he was at odds with the supreme leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei. This has made some political activist think that Saeed Jalili might follow Ahmadinejad in this regard.
But Naghavi rejects this possibility.”Dr. Jalili believes the final word is the Leader’s; not based on the status that the constitution regards for Wilayat al Faqih (the guardianship of the jurist), but because of his personal belief and faith.”
The head of Saeed Jalili’s presidential campaign in Tehran also rejected the claims about Jalili being “the government’s candidate”, arguing, “In the seventh presidential election similarly many claimed that Nategh Noori was the government’s candidate but people voted for Mohammad Khatami and he became the president for two terms. Today also the government considers all of the candidates approved by the Guardian Council suitable for presidency and it is the people who should vote and elect the best candidate as president.”
