TEHRAN: Iran’s former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani joined the race to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday, accusing the incumbent of needlessly incurring crippling economic sanctions.
Rowhani, 64, who headed the relatively moderate nuclear negotiating team that served under reformist president Mohammad Khatami before Ahmadinejad took power in 2005, joins a field of more than a dozen hopefuls for the June election.
Ahmadinejad, who fired Rowhani on taking office, is barred by the constitution from standing for a third consecutive four-year term. In 2003, Rowhani led the talks with the West at which Tehran agreed on a moratorium on its nuclear drive. AFP
