A Look at the Presidential Candidates in Iran<br />Ebrahim Raisi, 56 Widely believed to have the backing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Raisi is known as a hard-line cleric who has spent most of his political career as a prosecutor<br />and judicial official, starting at age 20, two years after the revolution.<br />By RICK GLADSTONEMAY 12, 2017<br />The president of Iran is facing re-election competition from a career hard-line prosecutor, his own vice president, Tehran’s mayor, a former culture minister<br />and the one-time leader of the country’s sports organization.<br />Here are summaries of each candidate: Hassan Rouhani, 68 The incumbent, a moderate cleric with a long career in the political hierarchy, is best known for having negotiated the 2015 agreement with world powers, including the United States,<br />that ended Iran’s global isolation by relaxing economic sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear activities.<br />Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, 70 A former top official of Iran’s physical education organization<br />and National Olympic Committee, Mr. Hashemi-Taba is closely associated with Mohammad Khatami, the former reformist president who preceded Mr. Ahmadinejad.<br />Eshaq Jahangiri, 60 Mr. Rouhani’s vice president, Mr. Jahangiri is a reformist who joined the race in a politically strategic move to help Mr. Rouhani counter their conservative critics<br />and defend the nuclear accord, which many Iranians regard as an exemplary achievement even if it has yet to yield major economic benefits.<br />Mr. Qalibaf has assailed President Rouhani over a failure to create jobs and has predicted<br />that "an unemployment tsunami will wash away the government." Rights advocates have accused him of having bragged about crushing protests and beating demonstrators during his police career.
