TEHRAN, Iran — On June 3, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his first major speech since leaving office last year. He praised Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died 25 years ago on June 4, and said that Iran’s enemies have not yet realized that Iranians would defend the Iranian revolution “until the last breath.” Ahmadinejad, however, did not speak about the one thing that has been a source of speculation: his political return.

On May 31, his brother Davoud Ahmadinejad said that the chances of the former president running for the presidency again were “very high.” While Davoud’s comments did not receive the usual Ahmadinejad-type attention, it seems that other forces in Iran are taking his return to politics seriously, and are intent on preventing it.

The arrest of two political figures with close ties to Ahmadinejad, as well as the constant criticism directed at the former president by some of his own former ministers, indicates that the possibility of Ahmadinejad returning to the political arena is being taken seriously by the country's right-wing political elite.

Abdolreza Davari and Bahman Sharifzadeh, who were also chief campaign managers of the "long live the spring" campaign, were arrested in a period of five days. This campaign came to an end when their candidate, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's former chief of staff and chosen candidate for the 2013 presidential elections, was disqualified by the Guardian Council.