Nuclear Negotiators Catherine Ashton & Saeed Jalili
Election Watch: Velayati speaks about nuclear program, economy.
Presidential hopeful Ali Akbar Velayati has said that a solution can be found to Iran's nuclear program, whereby Iran has peaceful nuclear energy without sanctions, according to Fars News, close to the Revolutionary Guards.
Velayati said that "certain individuals" thought the sanctions were no more than "pieces of paper", referring to Ahmadinejad's comments in 2007. Presidential hopeful and Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also referred to these comments in a speech earlier this week, when he said that Iran's position must be resolved through "intelligent and rational diplomacy…A rational view says that the sanctions are neither torn pieces of paper, nor will removing them fix all of the problems.”
Velayati said that the best outcome would be for Iran to have both peaceful nuclear energy and no sanctions. Iran must have an "international language" so that Iran and the West could understand each other.
Velayati is Iran's former Foreign Minister and the current senior advisor on international affairs to Iran's Supreme Leader.
Protest Watch
Iranian media report on protests in Hormozogan and Fars provinces because of reorganisation of local governments and authorities' expropriation of a mine.
Presidential Election Watch
Arsalan Fathipour, the head of Parliament's Economy Commission, has said he will stand for the Presidency. He declared that he wants a Parliament of economists and he will revive the Planning Centre.
Clerical Watch
Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani, meeting Presidential hopeful Hassan Rohani in the holy city of Qom, has said that many current problems are because of the weakness of current officials.
Presidential Election Watch
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar has said the "Coalition of 5", the principlist group of five Presidential hopefuls, will reach a consensus on which of the coalition’s members should register for the Presidential election.
The Deputy Speaker said it has not been decided which of the members will formally register between 7 and 11 May as a candidate.
Bahonar ruled out the possibility that he would drop out of the race in favour of presidential hopefuls from other camps. That appears to be a direct challenge to the Supreme Leader's "2+1 Committee", which has failed since January to find a unity candidate.
Besides Bahonar, the coalition includes hopefuls former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran Inpsector General Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-e Eshaq, and MP Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard.
Foreign Minister on Nuclear Talks "Don't Waste Our Time"
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has put out another message to the 5+1 Powers over a further round of nuclear discussions, “We shouldn’t let time go by, and the Islamic Republic has constantly announced its readiness for talks."
Salehi, in Kakazhstan for a meeting of Asian ministers, pressed for a resumption of talks in the Kazakh city Almaty, host of the latest negotiations in February and April: “[Kazakh President Nursultan] Nazarbayev announced his country’s readiness to host the Almaty 3 meeting."
Since the April discussions failed to bring any breakthrough in the long-running statemate between Iran and Western powers, Tehran has emphasised that it is seeking an advance while blaming the US and European partners for stalling.