With just 100 days to go until a presidential election in Iran, both conservative heavyweights and reformists weakened after the controversial 2009 poll are keeping their cards close to their chests.
The June 14 election will be followed closely in the West four years after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election for a second term sparked a wave of violent protests that were suppressed by the regime with deadly force.
Under the constitution, Ahmadinejad cannot stand for a third consecutive four-year term.
Mohsen Rezai, once commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard and now secretary of the Expediency Council, Iran’s highest arbitration body, and ex-foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki have expressed an interest in the post.
But both lack a popular support base and do not seem to have backing from within the regime, so their chances must be slim.
Rezai also stood as a candidate in 2009, but secured less than a million out of the 40 million votes cast.