TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian state TV said Thursday
that the body charged with vetting candidates has
disqualified former hard-line President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in next month’s
presidential election. It carried an Interior Ministry statement saying that
President Hassan Rouhani has been approved to run
for re-election, along with hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who
is considered close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad, who remains a deeply polarizing figure
even among Iranian hard-liners, had shocked the country by
registering last week. Khamenei had previously urged him not to
run. Ahmadinejad was president from 2005 to
2013, and was best known abroad for his incendiary rhetoric
toward Israel, his questioning of the scale of the Holocaust and
his efforts to ramp up Iran’s nuclear program. The Guardian Council, a cleric-dominated body that vets
candidates, said it had compiled a final list of candidates
earlier Thursday and that the Interior Ministry would announce
their names by Sunday.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and leading hardliner Ebrahim Raisi have
both been approved to run in elections next month, state media has
reported.The nominations of Mr Rouhani and Mr Raisi will lead to a showdown between bitterly divided political camps. Mr Raisi is a seyed, meaning he traces his genealogy back to the Prophet
Muhammad. He has a reputation for his uncompromising stance on key
issues and is rumoured to be supported by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Mr Rouhani and Mr Raisi are expected to focus their campaigns on the
state of the economy as well as the nuclear deal, which has been hailed
by the president as his most significant success over the four years he
has been in office.