Topic: Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's maverick former leader who's now barred from the presidency, surprised officials Wednesday by registering for next month's race.

The efforts of the administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be recognized by the public, the nation's supreme leader said.

Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani is likely to take nuclear discussions “back to the past.”

The Iranian resistance is set to reiterate its demands for democratic change and a non-nuclear Iran in an upcoming grand gathering in Paris on June 22.

U.S. statements on the Iranian election process show a profound misunderstanding of the country's political system, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The declining reputation of Iran and its related economic problems are the true enemies of the Islamic republic, former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani said.

The leading opposition-backed candidate in Iran's presidential election was not on the list of eight candidates allowed to run, the Interior Ministry said.

The last-minute entry of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani into June's Iranian elections poses a major challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian election officials said the field of candidates for next month's presidential election has been finalized at 686.

The front-runners for the upcoming Iranian presidential election include a former president and a top aide to the current leader, election officials said.