Rohani keeps mum on presidential candidacy

TEHRAN, Oct. 15 (MNA) – The chairman of the Expediency Council Research Center, Hassan Rohani, remained silent on Sunday about whether he will contest the 2013 presidential election. He also said that Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former Majlis speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri have announced that they will not run for president. He added, “In my view, all individuals, groups, and political factions” should be given the chance to contest the election. On the activities of reformists for the presidential election, he said, “This subject should be asked from reformists themselves because I have no news about their plans and decisions, but, as I insisted, all groups should participate in the election.” Rohani criticizes EU sanctions against Iran The former Supreme National Security Council secretary, who also acted as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator under former president Mohammad Khatami, also censured the new European Union sanctions against Iran, saying, “They previously claimed that sanctions are within the framework of the United Nations, while these sanctions are beyond the United Nations framework. These sanctions are unilateral.” Former security chief criticizes administration’s foreign policy Elsewhere in his remarks, Rohani said that Iran should have good relations with the outside world. “Our relations with countries are not clear. Today we are intimate friends with some countries, (but) tomorrow we become rivals and after that become enemies,” the former SNSC secretary commented. He also stated that foreign policy needs expertise and diplomacy is not a place for “personal taste”.