Iran’s former president Hassan Rouhani has been disqualified from the elected council that chooses the next supreme leader, a significant blow to the country’s centrist forces.
The Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog dominated by hardliners, rejected the application by Rouhani, president of Iran for eight years until 2021, to stand again for the 88-member Assembly of Experts, officials in his office confirmed.
Rouhani staked his political future on a nuclear accord with world powers in 2015, and the ultimate failure of the deal is regarded as a national disgrace by hardliners. The US withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed a strict package of economic sanctions on the Islamic republic.