Who is ahmadinejad of iran

Potential candidates have until Saturday to formally enter the race to replace outgoing President Hassan Rouhani. By Maziar Motamedi. Published On 12 May More from News. US jury can consider Rittenhouse provoked deadly violence: Judge. Rivian is now biggest US company by market value with no revenue. US indicts ex-Trump aide Bannon for defying January 6 subpoena. COP26 climate crisis talks pass deadline as negotiators seek deal. Indeed, Ahmadinejad began his transformation a decade ago, during his second term as president.

Ahmadinejad seemed to interpret this as a green light to do as he wished in office. The result was serious friction between his administration and almost all other centers of power in Iran, including the judiciary, the parliament, the IRGC, and even Khamenei himself.

What Ahmadinejad had probably not considered was that the same conservative camp that suppressed the Green Movement in his favor would do the same to any other potential troublemakers. Upon the end of his second term in office in , Ahmadinejad decided to maintain his hold on power by handing over the presidency to a member of his inner circle.

Mashaei, however, who was detested by the conservatives for his controversial positions about Islam and the clergy, failed to cross the barrier of the Guardian Council. By then, it had already become clear that neither he nor anyone close to him would have any chance to assume top executive posts in the country.

When Ahmadinejad reached the conclusion that he would not find a way back to power through the system, he decided to open a path around it. He understood the Guardian Council was highly unlikely to qualify him to run this year.

But a rejection was exactly what he wants, as it can help him project the image of an opposition figure who tirelessly strives to bring about change and has no fear of directly confronting the Iranian establishment.

Ahmadinejad no doubt understands he is unlikely to ever become president again—but his ambitions extend far beyond that office. If anything, he seems to be waiting for the power vacuum that is likely to emerge after the death of the year-old Khamenei.

Registration will end on Saturday, after which entrants will be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by a member vetting body, the Guardian Council. Khamenei backed Ahmadinejad after his re-election triggered protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, rattling the ruling theocracy, before security forces led by the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps IRGC stamped out the unrest.

But a rift developed between the two after then-president Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated checks on Khamenei's ultimate authority. Under Iranian law, he became eligible to run again after four years out of office, but he remains a polarizing figure, even among fellow hard-liners.

But Ahmadinejad remains popular among the poor for his populist efforts and home-building programs. It will run through Saturday. Among the reformists, however, a clear candidate has yet to emerge.