TEHRAN: A leading Iranian conservative clerical group has endorsed veteran diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 14 presidential election, a media report said yesterday.
The Mehr news agency said a majority of members of the Qom Seminary Scholars Association at a meeting on Saturday gave their support to Velayati, quoting group chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a former conservative head of the judiciary.
The association is one of the two leading conservative groups in the holy city of Qom, the clerical nerve-centre of Iran. The other, the Combatant Clerics Association, has not yet endorsed one of the eight presidential candidates approved by the hardline electoral watchdog the Guardians Council.
Velayati, a former foreign minister for 16 years, is currently senior foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all key issues in the Islamic republic.
AFP
