TEHRAN, Iran — With the country only a year away from its next presidential vote, Iranian political factions are combing their ranks for the strongest possible candidates.
In the previous presidential election, in 2013, the Reformists had only one candidate: Mohammad Reza Aref. At that time, successful candidate Hassan Rouhani was also described by some news outlets and analysts as Reformist to repeated criticism from Aref, who reiterated, “I don’t describe Rouhani as Reformist.” He was right. Rouhani’s base has always been different from that of Aref’s.