MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday appointed a hard-line cleric sanctioned by the West as the country's new judiciary chief, state media reported, replacing the president-elect who previously held the powerful post. The new chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, 64, takes the reins from Ebrahim Raisi, who will ascend to the country's highest civilian position after his election victory earlier this month. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, announced Ejehi's appointment, urging him to advocate for justice and fight corruption.

Iranian state TV showed voters streaming to cast their ballots, but very different scenes were playing out on Tehran’s streets, where traffic was light and polling places appeared relatively empty.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not vote in Friday’s presidential election in Iran and warned that the outcome would produce a government without a popular mandate, in another blow to the credibility of the most restricted poll in the Islamic Republic's history. Mr Ahmadinejad, who was president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, said he would exercise his "personal right" to abstain after what he described as the disenfranchisement of voters. “I am not going to vote. And the main reason is that I am witnessin

The comments come after the former president's candidacy was rejected by Iran's Guardian Council, the vetting body of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s presidential election Friday will determine who will lead the country’s civilian government.

Approving a variety of candidates for Iran’s presidential election could help boost turnout for a vote that authorities already worry may see little enthusiasm, a spokesman for the panel that examines them said Tuesday. Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei’s comments came after more than 590 people registered to run during a five-day span last week — far less than the 1,630 people who registered in 2017. Kadkhodaei, spokesman for the Guardian Council, talked to The Associated Press as the state-owned polling center ISPA has warned of the possibility of a turnout as low as 39% — the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A former speaker of Iran’s parliament has registered to run in the Islamic Republic’s upcoming presidential election

Iran’s judiciary chief and a prominent hard-line cleric has registered to run in the country's June presidential election.

A former speaker of Iran's parliament registered Saturday to run in the Islamic Republic's upcoming presidential election, becoming the first high-profile candidate to potentially back the policies of the outgoing administration that reached Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers. The decision by Ali Larijani, long a prominent conservative voice who later allied himself with Iran's relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, came on the last day of registration for the June 18 election. While a panel overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ultimately will approve candidates, Larijani has maintained close ties to the cleric over his decades in government.

Iran’s former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run again for the Islamic Republic’s presidency.

Iran has opened registration for potential candidates in the country's June presidential election.

In this photo released Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, by Tasnim News Agency, a seized South Korean-flagged tanker is escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats on the Persian Gulf. Iranian state television acknowledged that Tehran seized the oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seemed to acknowledge Tehran's interest in leveraging the situation in a tweet about its nuclear enrichment. Meanwhile, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the MT Hankuk Chemi, with photos later released showing its vessels alongside the tanker. The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an anonymous company official denying the Iranian claim the ship polluted the water.

60 Minutes Archives: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Bob Anderson produced this Scott Pelley interview with Iran’s former president. Pelley asked about evidence that Iranian weapons were being sent to Iraq, and claims by the Bush administration that Iran was pursuing a nuclear bomb.

Shajarian, whose distinctive voice quavered to traditional Persian music on state radio for years before supporting protesters following Irans contested 2009 election, has died, state TV reported Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. Shajarian enlivened Iran’s traditional music with his singing style, which soared, swooped and trilled over long-known poetry set to song. “After what happened, I said ‘no way’ and threatened to file a complaint against them if they continued to use my music,” Shajarian told The Associated Press in 2009. Perhaps the light of humanity will get through to your heart too.”Shajarian then told state radio to stop using his songs, which they did. For the first time in over a decade, state TV showed file footage of the singer.

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)DUBAI Iranian state television has broadcast the suspected coerced confessions of at least 355 people over the last decade as a means to both suppress dissent and frighten activists in the Islamic Republic on behalf of security services, according to a report released Thursday. The number of those filmed likely is even higher as some say their coerced confessions have yet to air, while others may not have been immediately accessible to researchers, said Mohammad Nayyeri, co-director of Justice for Iran. IRIB operates as a media hub that links a vast network of security, intelligence, military and judicial organizations, the report said. State television aired confessions by suspected members of communist groups, insurgents and others. But there are many more, according to the report, including those who have yet to see their confessions broadcast.

Forensic worker carry a body from a hotel downtown Bucharest, Romania, Friday, June 19, 2020. Gholamreza Mansouri, a former judge from Iran sought by his country to face corruption charges has died in unusual circumstances, Romanian media reported. Romanian police said only that a man had fallen from a high floor at a hotel in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, and was found dead. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)BUCHAREST A former judge from Iran sought by his country to face corruption charges died Friday after a fall in a hotel, Romanian media reported Friday. ___Associated Press writer David Rising in Berlin, and Andreea Alexandru in Bucharest, contributed to this report.