Iranian presidential candidate Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, who hails from the Reformist camp but who has nevertheless not secured the solid support of the faction, has written to the main Reformist body in the country to demand a meeting where he could present his presidential agenda.
Mehr-Alizadeh wrote in his letter, addressed to Behzad Nabavi, the chief of Iran’s Reform Front, that he would like to be given “an opportunity to participate in and present my plans at the meeting of the general assembly of the respected Front,” IRNA reported on Monday (May 31).
Earlier in May, Iran’s Reform Front had released a list of 14 potential candidates, nine of whom registered to run in the June 18 election, including Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri. All of them were, however, disqualified by the Constitutional Council from running.
Mehr-Alizadeh, a Reformist and vice president under former President Mohammad Khatami, was not on the Front’s list, and even though he was approved by the Council to run, the Reformist body said on May 26 that after the disqualification of its nine people, it would be having no candidate in the 2021 presidential election.
Calls have since grown on the Reformist camp to throw its weight behind Mehr-Alizadeh and Nasser Hemmati, a Moderate who is associated with outgoing President Hassan Rouhani and who has also been approved by the Constitutional Council to run. But Iran’s Reform Front has been silent. By 11:00 GMT on Monday, it was unclear whether the Front would grant Mehr-Alizadeh a meeting, or whether that meeting would entail the Reformist body’s pronouncing of support for the presidential candidate.
Before Jahangiri, the Reformists’ top choice was Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who refused to run.