Iranian Presidential Campaign Gets Underway – Ahmadinejad Disqualified

The campaign to elect the next Iranian president has gotten underway – albeit without the candidacy of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was disqualified from running. The May 19 election will see incumbent Hassan Rouhani, who has become a popular figure in the West, take on five hardline candidates. The bellicose Ahmadinejad, who surprised many by announcing his candidacy last week, was disqualified by the Guardian Council which is charged with vetting candidates, because the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Ruler, had told the former president not to run. Rouhani’s competition is not insignificant. His foremost challenge comes from a hardline cleric with close ties to the Ayatollah. Meanwhile, President Trump, who campaigned on a platform of voiding or reworking the nuclear development agreement that had been negotiated between Tehran and five Western nations, is reviewing all US government policies relative to Iran. A bill that would re-implement certain sanctions because of its ongoing work on missiles is pending in Congress and awaiting the outcome of the election. Iranian leaders have threatened the US in the event it breaches the nuclear deal.