The dozens who signed up to run for president also include senior security official and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, former three-time parliament speaker Ali Larijani, Tehran’s Mayor Alireza Zakani, and former central bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati. Jalili is now the Iranian supreme leader’s representative to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and used to be security chief from 2007 to 2013 at the height of the tensions surrounding the nuclear file. He has run for president unsuccessfully three times before. Larijani, a conservative figure belonging to a powerful family, is perhaps the only relatively moderate candidate with any chance of garnering a considerable number of votes – that is if he is greenlit by the Guardian Council after being disqualified in 2021.
