Ahmadinejad Must be Re-elected ‎

Supreme Leader’s Representative in the Passdaran:

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A week after Iran’s ayatollah Khamenei publicly proclaimed his total support for ‎president Ahmadinejad and insisted that the “administration had to plan things as if it was ‎going to work for another five years.” The representative of the supreme leader at the ‎Passdaran Revolutionary Guards yesterday announced that the country’s “best interests” ‎would be served if Ahmadinejad were re-elected for “another 4-year term.” ‎

Cleric Mojtaba Zolnouri, the supreme leader’s representative at the Passdaran made these ‎remarks at the weekly meeting of the militant group Ansar-e Hezbollah. On the ‎possibility of other hardline ideologues competing against Ahmadinejad, he said, “The ‎government of Mr. Ahmadinejad has embarked on projects that the country’s interests ‎require be completed to bear fruit during the next 4-year term. Right now this work is not ‎at a point to warrant a change in the administration, and the interests of the state lie in not ‎changing the government. Therefore, if our friends enter the scene on the principalist ‎platform (the name Iranian hardline ideologues have given to themselves), I certainly do ‎not see this as serving the public, the state and the revolution.”‎

Responding to a question about the candidacy of “Seyed Mohammad Khatami, ‎Mohammad Reza Khatami and Abdollah Nouri in next year’s presidential race,” Zolnouri ‎implicitly referenced them as disqualified candidates by saying, “None of these three ‎have left an opening or a positive record for the Guardian Council to qualify them as ‎presidential candidates.” ‎

Praising the current administration, the representative of Iran’s leader at the Passdaran ‎said “During Mr. Ahmadinejad administration many of the leader’s concerns were ‎addressed. In the past the focus was on getting rid of principles while today preserving ‎and promoting principles are the current government’s modus operendi.” ‎