Iran’s supreme leader has said that some candidates rejected from this month’s presidential election had been “wronged” and unfairly smeared, but the country’s powerful Guardian Council said the decision to ban them would not be reversed. But in a speech on Friday, Khamenei said some of the disqualified candidates had been treated unfairly. Iran’s reformist vice-president, Ishaq Jahangiri, and former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh were also left out. Larijani’s brother Sadegh Larijani, a member of the Guardian Council, had denounced his brother’s disqualification, saying that it was because of false information provided by the intelligence services. But the Guardian Council said its decision to ban the candidates had not been affected by any rumours against them, and the prohibitions still stood.

Source: The Guardian June 04, 2021 19:19 UTC