Journalist says Zarif told him ‘definitely’ won’t run in June 18 presidential election
An Iranian journalist says Mohammad Javad Zarif has told him that he “definitely” won’t run in the June 18 presidential election, even though the Iranian foreign minister has remained publicly silent on the matter in recent weeks.
Farid Modaressi wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that Zarif “just told me he will definitely not register [to run] in the presidential election.”
He said the Iranian foreign minister — whom the Reformist camp has been trying to convince to run — told him of his unambiguous decision “after meeting with Misters [Mohammad] Khatami and [Hassan] Khomeini,” both of them prominent Reformist figures.
Zarif has denied having presidential aspirations in the past. But he has not ruled out candidacy forcefully and publicly in recent weeks, as the election draws close, even though he has been resisting intense lobbying by the Reformist camp to run.
Modaressi did not explain why Zarif spoke to him about the matter.
The Iranian foreign minister, formerly an ambassador to the United Nations (UN), remains a top choice of the Reformists.
President Hassan Rouhani, in whose two administrations Zarif has served as foreign minister, will reach the end of his second term this year. Rouhani cannot run in the 2021 election, having already served two consecutive terms.
If Zarif continues to stay out of the race, Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri will be the Reformists’ second best choice, according to Azar Mansouri, the spokeswoman for Iran’s Reform Front.
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