Former Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani registers as a possible presidential candidate

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A former speaker of Iran’s parliament has registered as a possible candidate in the Islamic Republic’s June 28 presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month with seven others. Ali Larijani is the first high-profile candidate to register for the contest. He and other serious contenders against Raisi had been barred from running in the 2021 election. Larijani is viewed as a conservative within Iran’s narrow political scene. However, he has increasingly allied himself with former President Hassan Rouhani, whose administration reached a 2015 nuclear deal with a group of world powers.