Free Republic

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The following are brief portraits of the seven candidates competing to replace reformist Mohammad Khatami in Iran's presidential election on Friday: AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI A mid-ranking cleric who has held most of the top positions in Iran's political structure and is widely considered to be Iran's second most powerful figure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani, 70, was president from 1989 to 1997 and is a moderate conservative who favours closer ties with the West and liberalisation of the state-heavy economy. He is credited with bringing the costly 1980-1988 war with Iraq to an end and...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and reformist Mostafa Moin are heading to a run-off vote in Iran's presidential election, both camps said on Friday. Aides to the two men told Reuters Rafsanjani and Moin were the top two vote-getters in a field of seven, but neither had gained the 50 percent support needed for outright victory. Official results are expected on Saturday. "Rafsanjani and Moin are the first two, according to our surveys. They are the ones who will compete in the second round," close Rafsanjani aide Mohammad Atrianfar said. "My prediction is that Rafsanjani and Moin...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Whether cowed by crackdowns, pacified by an increase in social freedoms or simply resigned, Iran's students are no longer the force that once spearheaded a revolution or agitated for liberal reform. With just over a week to go before a presidential election in which the Islamic state's clerical leaders have said it is a national and religious duty to vote, student leader Abdollah Momeni is calling -- quietly -- for a boycott. It appears the last resort of a group whose hopes for reform through the ballot box have all but vanished, at least for now. "Voting...

TEHRAN, Aug 23 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami accepted the resignation of his minister for higher education Saturday, tendered last month in protest at the violent suppression of campus riots and the blocking of a key reform bill. Science, Research and Technology Minister Mostafa Moin is the first cabinet member to stand down since Khatami's reelection in 2001. But the Tehran press reported that others might follow amid growing anger within Khatami's reformist administration over the styming of his legislative agenda by conservatives within the Islamic regime. In his resignation letter, Moin said he could no longer tolerate the...