Ex-FM to Run in Next Presidential Election

(FNA)- Former Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election slated for next June.

In an open letter addressing Iranians, Mottaki said that he will compete with other contenders in the country's 11th round of presidential election which will be held in less than four months.

Mottaki served as Iran's Foreign Minister during President Ahmadinejad's first term from 2005 to 2009 and also administered Iran's foreign diplomacy during Ahmadinejad's second term until he was sacked in December 2010.

Earlier, two sources close to other two high-profile figures Mohsen Rezayee, a former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Tehran Mayor Mahammad Baqer Qalibaf announced that they would run for presidency in next election.

In December, a source close to Rezayee said the veteran Iranian politician, who lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and finished third in the 2009 presidential poll, "will run for presidency in the upcoming election next year.

"Mohsen Rezayee has not yet personally announced his candidacy but in our view and at the request of the Resistance Front (a political faction in Iran), his nomination in the election is for sure," Secretary of Resistance Front's Political Committee Hossein Kana'ani Moqaddam told FNA.

In July, Qalibaf's advisor Mohammad Nabi Roudaki said that the Tehran mayor "will run" in the country's next presidential election.

"Qalibaf will definitely take part in the 11th round of the presidential election and he will run as a candidate in the election," Roudaki told FNA.

Also informed sources told FNA that Qalibaf will submit his resignation letter from his current post in February to run for the upcoming presidential election.

During the last presidential election in 2009, the Tehran Mayor ruled out that he had plans to take part in the next presidential election.

"I have never been after power or responsibility," Qalibaf had told MNA at the time.

Qalibaf came fourth in the country's 2005 presidential elections. Shortly afterwards, the former police chief was appointed as the mayor of Iran's capital, Tehran.

In September, the Iranian Interior Ministry announced the country will hold the next presidential election on June 14, 2013.