Tehran has vetted those who signed their names for the presidential polls and has approved the qualifications of four candidates.

Those approved are former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei and incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Press TV has learned.

Karroubi will contest the presidency on the Reformist platform while Rezaei and Ahmadinejad are considered Principlists.

Mousavi has refrained from officially linking his political tendencies to a certain camp.

Iran has scheduled its tenth presidential election for June 12.

The body that is tasked with vetting the qualifications of candidates and approving their ability to handle the country’s affairs is the 12-member Guardians Council.

The Islamic Republic of Iran  launched advanced surface-to surface missile called ‘Sejjil-2’, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

President Ahmadinejad, who is in the northern province of semnan at the last leg of his 60-province tour, said the surface-to-surface missile was launched Wednesday morning in the province and successfully hit its pre-determined target.

The missile which belongs to the advanced generation of surface-to-surface missiles was first tested in November, 2008.

The Sejjil missile has a range of almost 2,000 kilometers and is different from Shahab-3 missile. It operates in two stages and uses solid fuel, whereas, Shahab-3 missile is one-stage operator and uses
liquid fuel.

Sejjil’s range is longer than Shahab-3.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cabinet members arrived in Semnan Wednesday morning on the 60th and last provincial tour of his government.

The initiative of visiting Iranian cities had started since President Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 to become closely familiar with people’s problems in different cities of the country.

This is the second visit of the President to Semnan to follow up the projects approved during his first round of provincial tour.

Later in the day, President Ahmadinejad is to address provincial residents at the city’s stadium.

He is also to hold separate meetings with families of Semnan’s wartime martyrs, war veterans and provincial scholars and Alims during his stay in the province.

On the fifth day of his visit to Kurdistan province, the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei regarded national dignity as a very effective factor in the brilliant future of the Iranian people.

Addressing a very enthusiastic gathering of the faithful, affectionate and brave people of Marivan, the IR Leader stressed: “The glorious future belongs to the youths and it has to be be fulfilled by relying on Islamic, national and indigenous recipes and avoiding alien recipes.”

In this gathering that was organized in Marivan’s Zagros stadium, Ayatollah Khamenei regarded fighting the aliens that seek the nation’s humiliation and abjection as a prerequisite for national dignity and said: “The enemies of this great land see no benefit for themselves in the progress and glory of Islamic Iran; therefore, any dependence to alien-written recipes is against national interests and would destroy the country’s independence, dignity and prosperity.”

The IR Leader regarded the inability of the Western capitalism in confronting economic crises as a clear reason for the weakness of management methods in Western countries, adding: “The officials, the people and especially the youth and thinkers should contemplate on this reality.”

He considered the pure Islam, namely the Islam of Qoran, Sunna and Ahl-ul-Bait as the base and original recipe for the movement and progress of the nation and system, stressing: “We do not call anyone to the petrified and narrow-minded Islam, but the Islam that we regard as treatment for pains and guarantee for the country’s progress and glory is an Islam that calls the human being to thinking and contemplation and is able to create a historical and magnificent movement like the Islamic Revolution.”

Ayatollah Khamenei criticized those who in different times including in election periods, repeat the Westerners’ remarks to attract people’s attention, adding: “Such remarks are not considered as privilege. They are opposition to the Islamic-Iranian thought and identity.”

In another part of his speech, he termed Kordestan and Marivan as a land full of  glory, braveness and natural beauty, and full of the feeling of affection and loyalty, saying: “I regard this area as one of the gifts and blessings that God has granted to the country and the system.”

Referring to his visit to Marivan and surrounding area in 1980 at the peak of Baathist Saddam’s attack on Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The enemies of this nation’s progress relying on hireling and dependent agents wanted to create a deep valley of suspicion between the people of this very important and sensitive area and the people of other parts of the country, but the faithful, zealous and loyal Kords foiled this conspiracy very well. The young generation of the country and the area should become very well familiar with these instructive realities.”

Reminding Saddam’s war crimes including his chemical attacks, the IR Leader regarded the bitter incidents of eight years of sacred defense in western areas including Kordestan as a big laboratory for proving the deception and insincerity of Saddam’s supporters and the claimants of human rights.

“The ups and downs of thirty years of the Iranian people’s perseverance and victory should be explained as instructive lessons for the youths, so that the weight and real nature of today’s propaganda of the arrogance become clearer for them,” he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei considered the admittance by the world’s politicians and policy-makers to the regional and global position of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a sign for the stability and power of the country.

“The Islamic system, by God’s help, is in a position that it can focus on long-period projects of progress and prosperity,” he stressed.

The IR Leader termed the 20-year prospect document as the guide, director and real agenda for the officials of different forces and organizations and said: “In order to achieve the goals of this very credible and important document, both the officials and people bear great responsibilities, and we should be cautious that the enemies of the country’s progress do not distract the minds to marginal issues.”

Ayatollah Khamenei then noted that the province was in need of industrial and agricultural investment, especially in light of the hazards of joblessness in the area which among others include a tendency among the youths for smuggling induced by poor job opportunities.

Ayatollah Khamenei then noted that security was a prerequisite for investment and wealth production, adding that enemies would try to hinder any investment in the area through creation of insecurity however the powerful force of Islamic Republic with the help of valiant and loyal youths of the province will take a tough line on any spawners of insecurity.

The IR Leader then noted that the Kordestan visit was a bid to attract public attention to the talented, green and scenic area and expand affective ties among different Iranian ethnicities. He noted that Kord, Fars, Tork, Lor, and Baluch form a unified body called the great Iranian nation.

Ayatollah Khamenei concluded his remarks by noting that the nation and system would be viable once the nation and authorities attend to Islamic Revolution’s aspirations non-stop.

President Barack Obama says the US has not taken military action against Iran over its nuclear program off the table ahead of the Israeli premier’s trip to Washington.

In an interview with Newsweek on Saturday, Obama made it clear that he did not take any options off the table when asked about war with Iran.

“I’ve been very clear that I don’t take any options off the table with respect to Iran. I don’t take options off the table when it comes to US security, period,” said Obama.

Iran would be a main topic of talks during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Obama in Washington this week.

The new government of Barack Obama says it wants to engage diplomatically with Iran to resolve the country’s nuclear issue but has simultaneously followed in the Bush adminestration’s footsteps by pursuing double-edged policy of carrots and sticks with Iran.

“What I have said is that we want to offer Iran an opportunity to align itself with international norms and international rules,” the US president noted in his Saturday interview.

President Obama once again accused Tehran of being a threat to the region.

The Islamic Republic of Iran could be “a member in good standing of the international community and not a threat to its neighbors,” according to the first black leader in the US.

Obama also justified later US government decisions if nuclear talks do not stop Iran’s pursuit of the nuclear know-how which Tehran — a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — refuses to relinquish as its inalienable rights according to NPT regulations.

“If it doesn’t work, the fact that we have tried will strengthen our position in mobilizing the international community, and Iran will have isolated itself, as opposed to a perception that it seeks to advance that somehow it’s being victimized by a US government that doesn’t respect Iran’s sovereignty,” Obama said.

In April, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told US lawmakers that Washington was ‘willing’ to engage diplomatically with Iran but at the same time threatened Tehran with ‘very tough, crippling sanctions‘ if the desired results were not achieved.

The US president also ruled out making decision for Tel Aviv to prevent the regime from launching a unilateral war against Tehran.

“I don’t think it’s my place to determine for the Israelis what their security needs are,” he said.

“I can make an argument to Israel as an ally that the approach we are taking is one that has to be given a chance and offers the prospect of security, not just for the United States but also for Israel that is superior to some of the other alternatives.”

However, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon earlier on Saturday said that he could not imagine any attack against Iran without Washington’s approval.

Washington and Tel Aviv — the sole possessor of a nuclear warhead in the Middle East — have stepped up accusations that Iran is amassing weapons-grade uranium.

According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency figures, however, Iran has produced some 1,010 kilograms of low enriched uranium (LEU) — a level “less than 5 percent.”

Only enriched to high levels of above 90 percent, can uranium be used for production of nuclear weapons.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei urges Iranians and Muslims in general to resist enemy efforts to fuel sectarianism.

“Those who are targeting our national unity using faith as an excuse… they are the elements of the enemy,” the Leader said in the western Iranian city of Sanandaj on Tuesday.

“Those who try to sow discord among Shia and Sunni are mercenaries of the enemy, whether they realize it or not,” Ayatollah Khamenei told the large crowd gathered for the speech.

“The miserable Salafi and Wahhabi groups who are fed petro-dollars to carry out terrorist acts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, many of them are not aware that they are mercenaries of the enemy.”

Speaking in the Kurd and Sunni majority province of Kurdestan, Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say that Shias who insult Sunni beliefs, and vice versa, are also working for the interests of world powers and adversaries of Islam.

Moderate Sunni and Shia Muslims are of the belief that the Wahhabi ideology, which leaders of groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda seek to promote, bears no resemblance with Islam.

Comments made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a congressional hearing confirm that Washington supports such groups as part of its pursuit of its regional interests.

“And great, let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries, importing their Wahhabi brand of Islam so that we can go beat the Soviet Union,” she said on the Taliban’s creation in the 1980s.

During the Tuesday speech, Iran’s most senior official said that the Iranian nation would defend its territorial integrity against powers that do not want a united Iran.

Kurdestan is the Iranian province where PJAK separatists, offshoots of the internationally-recognized terrorist group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), seek to gain ground by carrying out violent attacks.

According to a November 2006 article published by The New Yorker, the US military and Israel provide PJAK with equipment, training and vital intelligence to destabilize the Iranian government.

The fever of presidency is running high in Iran as prominent figures officially register their candidacy for the June 12 election.

Reformist Mehdi Karroubi

On Saturday, two-time Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi officially registered his candidacy for the 10th presidential election.

Karroubi, the Reformist leader of the National Confidence party, entered the presidential race with the campaign slogan ‘Change’ within the frameworks of the Islamic Revolution’s Constitution.

Speaking to reporters after his registration, the 72-year-old candidate described the upcoming election as the “most important test” for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government and the Guardian Council — the electoral and constitutional watchdog tasked with overseeing the elections and vetting presidential candidates before the final line-up is revealed.

Karroubi called on the Interior Ministry — the body in charge of holding elections — and the Guardian Council to remain impartial and be very careful in guarding the people’s vote.

Karroubi also contested in the 2005 presidential election. The cleric was the speaker of Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) between 1990 and 1992 and once more between 2000 and 2004.

Independent Mir-Hossein Moussavi

On Saturday, Mir-Hossein Moussavi also registered in the Interior Ministry.

Known for his successful economic management in a tough period of war in the 80s, Moussavi said he entered the race as an “independent” hopeful to cross political boundaries.

“I have joined the race for presidential election to prevent political boundaries from imposing limitations on this clear path,” Moussavi said.

As a vocal critic of President Ahmadinejad and his policies, the last Iranian prime minister criticized what he termed as an inappropriate situation in the country which is “not in the prestige of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Revolution.”

He also vowed to revive dignity of the Iranian nation and to uphold its rights.

Incumbent Principlist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

After months of leaving his candidacy in a blur, President Ahmadinejad accepted the challenge on Friday and officially signed up to add another four-year term to his presidency.

Her had earlier urged the nation to use the election as an opportunity to strengthen unity.

“The elections should not promote pessimism in the country, but rather lead to the strengthening of national unity and solidarity,” Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.

“No one is allowed to interfere in the electoral process or to negatively impact the right of the Iranian nation to decide who will lead them,” he added.

Ahmadinejad’s campaign focuses on the message of justice, morality and spirituality.

Independent Mohsen Rezaei

Secretary of the Expediency Council and the war-time commander of Iran’s Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohsen Rezaei, has also decided to enter the presidential race.

On May 6, after months of efforts to introduce a coalition government before the election day, Rezaei announced his bid to challenge the incumbent president and on Friday registered his candidacy.

He has said that he joined the presidential race to save the country from “the path of destruction” taken by the current administration.

“The truth is that our nation has two very different paths at hand. If President Ahmadinejad gets his way, we will fall off the cliff … we will be defeated,” Rezaei said on May 3.

The Election

Iran’s presidential elections will take place on June 12. It will be the tenth since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 that ended the reign of the country’s monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

More than 250 people have so far enrolled as candidates for the June 12 election, since registration officially opened May 5.

The registered candidates will be vetted by the Guardian Council who are also in charge of supervising the elections. The influential body will announce the final list of approved candidates on May 20th and 21st.