Speculation over whether incumbent Hassan Rouhani will be barred from running for a second term in May is rising as Iran's upcoming presidential election edge closer.

On Jan. 4, Abbas-Ali Kadokhodai, the spokesperson for the conservative-dominated Guardian Council that is tasked with vetting candidates, told the hard-line Jam news site, "There is no guarantee that a president will be approved [by the Guardian Council to run] for a second term."

He added, "Legally, the Guardian Council has studied the qualifications of all incumbent presidents in all periods accurately. Now, in the past few terms, the outcome [of studying the qualification of incumbent presidents] has been positive. This has been the legal and usual procedure of the Guardian Council and will always be carried out."

Of note, a sitting president wishing to pursue a bid for re-election has so far not been disqualified, though former Presidents Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami were disqualified by the Guardian Council from running respectively in the 2013 and 2001 presidential elections. However, Khatami — who was first elected in 1997 — was later cleared to run following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s order for the Guardian Council's decision to be overruled.