DUBAI: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not run for president in next year’s Iranian election, he said on Tuesday, bowing to the wishes of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who warned his candidacy would increase divisions in Iran.
“In carrying out the intentions of the leader of the revolution, I have no plans to take part in the elections next year,” Ahmadinejad said in a letter to Khamenei, published on his website dolatebahar.com.
Ahmadinejad, a hard-liner who increased Iran’s international isolation by refusing to negotiate about its nuclear program, had not announced a re-election bid, but several speeches in recent months had prompted speculation of a political comeback.
By ruling himself out, he has removed one potentially serious challenger to President Hassan Rouhani’s bid for a second term at May’s election, although he is still likely to face a challenger opposed to his policy of detente with the West.
Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, was quoted on Monday as saying Ahmadinejad’s candidacy would polarize society and “create ... divisions in the country which I believe is harmful.”
Ahmadinejad was first elected president in 2005. His disputed re-election in 2009 prompted the biggest street protests in the Islamic Republic’s history and a security crackdown in which several people were killed and hundreds arrested.
Iranian law bars a president from seeking a third consecutive term. But Ahmadinejad would have been able to run again after the gap caused by Rouhani’s term.
“I will proudly remain a modest soldier of the revolution and a servant of the people,” Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad says will not run for president next year
Ahmadinejad says will not run for president next year
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
