Iran’s official month-long presidential campaign period kicked off last week in the run-up to the May 19 election. While former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s candidacy garnered international headlines, the real major development came when Ebrahim Raisi — touted as a potential successor to Iran’s aging supreme leader — entered the race.
Instead of a straightforward reelection campaign for Iran’s incumbent president, the question of supreme leader succession now looms over next month’s election.
Rouhani has a mixed record during his first term as president. He negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States plus the European Union), lifting international sanctions imposed over the Iranian nuclear program. Rouhani also introduced better economic management, which, alongside the sanctions relief of the JCPOA, generated a modest economic recovery after the Ahmadinejad years. Rouhani continues to be backed by a super-coalition of Iranian political currents composed of reformists, centrists and even moderate conservatives.
•https://www.ft.com/content/9f8aeab2-28cc-11e7-bc4b-5528796fe35c
•https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/04/27/irans-holding-presidential-elections-here-are-the-candidates-to-watch/?utm_term=.f8cee798e5da
•http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/iran-elections-guardian-council-candidates-rouhani.html
•http://linkis.com/www.ncr-iran.org/en/sR2qo
http://isisonline.org/uploads/conferences/documents/Albright_House_Oversight_
Subcommittee_5Apr2017_Final.pdf
•http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/21/iran-cheat-deal-nuclear-research-opposition-group/