Iran’s presidential candidates hold first TV debate ahead of elections

TEHRAN: Iran’s presidential candidates held their first televised debate on Monday (June 17) ahead of the upcoming snap elections later this month.

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Iran’s Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, has approved six candidates to run in the election after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.

On the list are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s hardline parliament speaker and former Revolutionary Guards commander, Saeed Jalili, a conservative, who was former chief nuclear negotiator and ran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office for four years and Tehran’s conservative mayor Alireza Zakani, according to State TV.

The candidates, also include Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist lawmaker, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a hardliner and a former interior minister, and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, a conservative politician.

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Monday’s debate focused on Iran’s declining economy, with candidates laying out their visions for growth amid Western sanctions and rampant inflation.

Iran is due to conduct snap elections on June 28 after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.