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Iran's Rouhani takes on powerful Guardian Council as elections approach

President Hassan Rouhani has criticized the conservative Guardian Council for disqualifying Reformist and moderate candidates from running the upcoming elections.
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President Hassan Rouhani spoke today at a ceremony for the Central Bank, where he discussed rising tensions with the United States and Iran’s upcoming parliamentary elections, in which a number of Reformists and moderates were banned from running by the conservative Guardian Council.

Regarding Iran’s bombing of the US Ain al-Assad base in Iraq in retaliation for the US strike that killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, Rouahani said, “It is very few countries that bomb a [US] base.” He added, “It is very important that we can shake their base in the middle of the night and keep the Pentagon up for 24 hours and leave them no options but to retreat from their threats.” Rouhani was referring to President Donald Trump’s tweets that he will target 52 Iranian cultural sites if Iran retaliates for the killing of Soleimani.

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