... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a
pragmatic conservativewithout all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012...
and top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili officially registered for the June 14 election.
Rafsanjani, who was president between 1989 and 1997, registered at the interior ministry in the closing minutes of the five-day registration process for the presidential vote which wrapped up on Saturday.
The final line-up of candidates will not be known until later this month when the Guardians Council releases the approved list of names after the vetting process.
"I came to serve. It is the right of the people to choose me or not," Rafsanjani was quoted by Iranian media as telling news hounds.
He is seeking to succeed
Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad whose two-term presidency has left the Islamic republic isolated internationally, while the ailing economy struggles to cope with international sanctions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Rafsanjani, who will be 79 in August, had polarized Iran's complex political spectrum in recent weeks by announcing that he was considering standing again.
He has been isolated by ultra-conservatives since Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009 sparked massive street protests, leading to a heavy-handed regime crackdown and the arrest of hundreds of journalists, activists and reformist supporters.
Rafsanjani at the time called for the release of those rounded up during the demonstrations.
Also on Saturday, Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and close figure to all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly showed up at the ministry and registered his candidacy.
A veteran of the 1980s war with Iraq in which he lost his lower right leg, Jalili, 47, did not speak to news hounds, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
Jalili heads the team in negotiations with world powers over Tehran's controversial atomic activities which the West fears are aimed at developing a military capacity, a claim denied by Iran.
In Istanbul on May 15 Jalili is scheduled to meet the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
's top diplomat Catherine Ashton, who represents the so-called P5+1 group of Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in nuclear talks with Iran.