Those responsible for status quo now presenting themselves as agents of change: Zakani

Iranian presidential candidate Alireza Zakani says individuals who have had a role in the straining of the Iranian economy are now presenting themselves as agents of change and reform, in a thinly-veiled attack on his Reformist rivals and possibly the broader reform movement in Iran.

“Nobody is admitting responsibility for [what has happened over] the past eight years,” Zakani said in a pre-recorded campaign program aired on state TV on Thursday (June 3).

He did not name anyone, but he was referring to the outgoing President Hassan Rouhani administration, and most likely, the former governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Nasser Hemmati, who is also running in the 2021 election. Both Rouhani and Hemmati are associated with the Reformist faction, even though the main Reformist current has refused to endorse Hemmati.

Zakani has clashed with Hemmati several times online during the past several weeks, ever since they were approved by Iran’s Constitutional Council to run. Most recently, he said Hemmati was responsible for “a massive part of our economic problems” and challenged him to a one-on-one debate on any broadcast platform, although Hemmati has not responded to the jabs, or the challenge, specifically.

The first live presidential debate featuring all the candidates has been scheduled for Saturday.

War of hashtags: Zakani, Hemmati quarrel online over Iran’s economic problems

Iranian presidential candidates Alireza Zakani, who is a Principlist, and Nasser Hemmati, a Moderate generally viewed as close to the Reformists, engage in a war of words on Twitter over Iran’s economic hardships.

In his newer remarks, Zakani said the inflation rate in Iran had risen to “above 49 percent” only twice, once under the late former President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and the other time under Rouhani.

He said his potential administration would be one of “action and reform,” and pledged that ordinary people would be able to be in contact with authorities in designated venues on all weekdays.

Zakani also said he would “transform” Iran’s foreign policy through the development of relations with Iran’s neighbors and the resistance front.

US will never stop using sanctions, Iran should bolster its economy: Zakani

Presidential candidate Alireza Zakani says the United States uses sanctions as an instrument against other countries but “will not be able to do anything” against Iran if the country strengthens its economy.

Iran is holding its 13^th presidential election on June 18. Zakani is running against six other candidates, although four of them are, like Zakani, Principlists. All of the seven candidates have so far been focusing on the economy, battered by sanctions and mismanagement in recent years, and many of them have attacked the Rouhani administration. Zakani has been a fierce critic of the administration’s nuclear deal with world powers already.

Besides Hemmati, Zakani has another Reformist rival, namely Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, a one-time vice president who has largely kept a low profile politically in the past two decades. Like Hemmati, Mehr-Alizadeh has not received official Reformist endorsement as of yet.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk