Rouhani: Based on the composition of the Guardian Council, at least two candidates' duties are to insult and curse

Hassan Rouhani, the former President of Iran, criticized the statements of several candidates approved by the Guardian Council for the Iranian presidential elections on Wednesday, June 30. In a meeting with a group of ministers and deputies from the eleventh and twelfth governments, Rouhani referred to the debates of the fourteenth presidential election, saying: "Based on the composition that the Guardian Council has created, at least two of these candidates' duties are to insult and curse." The twelfth government president added: "Their insults are not directed at Hassan Rouhani and the government of hope and prudence; their goal is to fight against the idea of interaction with the world." Rouhani emphasized: "They say there is no way but war and confrontation with the powers of the world and to defeat them, and we will never win in the UN or in negotiations with great countries; we always lose, and the way is not interaction." He stated: "The reason they are upset and angry, and they cannot forgive us as long as they live, is that we defeated their ideology during the eight years of our government and informed the people that the path they are taking is wrong; it is possible to interact with the world." The first televised debate of six candidates for the fourteenth presidential election of Iran was held on the evening of Monday, June 28, on the first channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. The principlist candidates have severely criticized the policies of Hassan Rouhani's government during the election campaigns. In this debate, Alireza Zakani and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, two principlist candidates, attacked the policies of Rouhani's government during the COVID-19 pandemic. They praised the government of Ebrahim Raisi for importing COVID-19 vaccines, blaming Rouhani's government for the high death toll during the pandemic. While these principlist representatives criticized the lack of vaccine imports, it was Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, who banned vaccine imports at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2021. Saeed Jalili, another principlist candidate, also criticized the twelfth government, saying, "The government wrote a letter in February 2019 to the Expediency Discernment Council stating that if a certain agreement is not signed, we cannot pay the salaries for March 2019. That agreement has still not been signed, and now it is 2024," yet salaries are still being paid. Following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, an early presidential election will be held on July 8 according to Article 131 of the Constitution. 80 individuals had volunteered to run in this early election, but only six of them were approved by the Guardian Council.