TEHRAN, Dec. 30 (Mehr News Agency) – Efforts are underway in the conservative camp to convince Ali Larijani, the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, to run for the March 2008 parliamentary elections.
Larijani ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004.

"Mr. Larijani is one of our best friends and we are trying to introduce him as a candidate for the eighth Majlis elections," Mohsen Rezaii, the Expediency Council secretary, told the Mehr News Agency.

Rezaii predicted that qualified persons from conservative and reformist factions as well as independents will grab most of the parliament seats.

"In my opinion capable persons…from the two camps and independents will constitute the eighth Majlis makeup."

However, Rezaii said he himself is not a candidate for parliament. "I have no decision to contest the upcoming elections."
 

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Parviz Sarvari, a member of the United Fundamentalist Front, predicted that Larijani will most likely appear on top of the list of conservative candidates in the elections.

"The likelihood that he will be convinced for candidacy and (his name) will be put on the top of the list is very high," Sarvari told the MNA.

Meanwhile, Mohammad-Hossein Shah Veisi from the conservative Youth Development group said Larijani' candidacy will make the competition "harder" for the reformists.

"This group will invite Dr. Ali Larijani to contest the election as one of the fundamentalists' candidates," Shah Veisi added.

He said Larijani's competence was proved in his two-year chairmanship of the Supreme National Security Council.

Larijani came to light for handling Iran's nuclear dossier with the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and UN nuclear watchdog Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

Larijani resigned his post as SNSC secretary in October. In an interview with the Hamshahri newspaper in early November Larijani said he quit the job to "facilitate" management affairs in handling the nuclear dossier.

However, the former security official said: "Currently, I don't want to talk about the reasons behind my resignation."

Larijani is at present the Supreme Leader's representative at the SNSC.
 

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