Sadegh Zibakalam, who is a political science professor at Tehran University and a respected public intellectual, says a new “Ahmadinejad” like person will be selected as the new president of Islamic Republic on 2013 presidential election. He also says the main parties of reformists’ side will not take part in this election as their leaders are suspended by Iranian authorities including Mohammad Khatami and Mir Hossein Mousavi.
“We have clear information about the upcoming election. The conservative parties won’t allow reformists to name a nominee so the chance of left wing parties is less than what they expect. The main race is between different conservative parties. As far as I know Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei will receive supports from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” Sadegh Zibakalam said.
He also named Hadad Adel, Saeed Jalili, Hashemi Shahroudiand and Velayati as the probable candidates for Iran’s 2013 presidential election. According to constitution, the current president is not legally allowed to announce his nomination for the next election.
“I must confess that they have made a lot of major problems for our country. In fact we are not able to understand the depth of these financial sanctions but they had devastated Iran’s economy. In order to bypass these sanctions, Islamic Republic must pay higher than before to import certain items.” Sadegh Zibakalam answered a question regarding the effects of U.S. engineered sanctions on Iran.
The tensions between Iranian government and U.S. have been increased over Iran’s nuclear program. The United States in cooperation with European countries have imposed restrictive sanctions against Iran.