Khamenei puts stop to Ahmadinejad's return
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finally puts an end to months of speculation about whether he will run for office in next year’s presidential vote.
On Sept. 27, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent an official letter to the supreme leader of Iran announcing that he will not run as a candidate in the May 19 presidential election.
In his letter, Ahmadinejad referred to an Aug. 30 meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and wrote, “You recommended that it is not suitable at this time for me to participate in the elections. Therefore, I have declared my obedience. … I have no plans to compete in next year’s election.”
Ahmadinejad, who served as president from 2005 to 2013, also thanked the supreme leader for his public lecture on Sept. 26 in which Khamenei indirectly referred to this meeting. Khamenei recounted that he was approached by a gentleman whom he did not consider suitable for candidacy, and said, “I did not tell him not to run. I said it is not in your own or the country’s best interests to run.”
Khamenei was widely quoted in Persian-language newspapers. Ebtekar News wrote Sept. 27 that even though the political hard-line faction knew about it, “Ahmadinejad’s supporters insisted that this news be announced publicly for them to accept it.”
