The former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai announced on Wednesday that he would run for president in the June presidential election. "I thought the country would not need me given the plans and goals of other candidates who are running ... but I have decided to enter the election for a number of reasons," Rezai was quoted as saying by the news agency 'Mehr.' Rezai, a veteran conservative who headed the guards corps for 16 years until 1997, ran in the 2005 presidential election which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won, but pulled out of the race a day before the election.
Now, he argues that he feels compelled to run because Iran needs "a change in its management model." In a statement, Rezai said: "I feel alarmed by lost economic, social, political and cultural opportunities inside the country, in the region and the world. The country is threatened by unemployment, inflation, poverty and drugs, weakening of political ethics and emergence of disunity between the government and different ethnic groups and between Shiite and Sunni."
Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism from rival reformists and fellow conservatives mainly over his handling of the economy and soaring inflation which has topped 25 percent despite Iran's windfall oil revenues over the past years. Rezai is the first conservative to openly challenge Ahmadinejad in the 12 June polls. Other candidates include former parliament speaker and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, also considered a reformist in Iran. Ahmadinejad has set up a campaign team for the elections without yet formally announcing he will run.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
