{"id":658,"date":"2013-05-18T00:32:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T20:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransview.com\/?p=658"},"modified":"2013-06-05T01:49:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T21:19:40","slug":"who-is-saeed-jalili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/who-is-saeed-jalili\/658\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalili: Amputee Candidate Becoming Frontrunner in Presidential Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Masoud Foroghi<\/span><\/p>\n Scores of people are stepping up for the presidency as we are witnessing more than 38 would-be candidates from the three major political parties in Iran, Principalists, Reformists and pro-governments, have registered as candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps one of the significant turning points in Iran’s recent politics was the last minute registration of the three well-known figures: Saeed Jalili, secretary of the National Security Council, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the expediency council and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, top advisor to the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<\/span><\/p>\n Most analysts consider Jalili’s unforeseen appearance as the most important. They believe Hashemi Rafsanjani is the experienced man who knows the ropes and it was nothing new to Iranian voters. In the eyes of the people, Mashaei is another Ahmadinejad, as he himself said, “Ahmadinejad means Mashaei and Mashaei means Ahmadinejad.”<\/span><\/p>\n But who is Saeed Jalili?<\/span><\/p>\n Jalili graduated from one of the most important institutes of Iran, Imam Sadigh University which is headed by Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, the current chairman of the Assembly of Experts. He went to war with Iraq in the 80s and one of his legs was amputated. But that didn’t stop him from continuing his studies.<\/span><\/p>\n