Iran's supreme leader urges adding reformist candidates

TEHRAN -- Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday urged a hardline government council to reinstate two reformists barred from the June 17 presidential race after the largest pro-reform party said it would boycott the vote.

The move by Khamenei, who has the last word in all state matters but rarely intervenes openly in political affairs, could offer reformists a way to retain the presidency held by pro-reform cleric Mohammad Khatami since 1997.

It may also damage the chances of front-runner Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative whose message of detente with the West and economic liberalization appeals to reformist supporters.

In a letter to the Guardian Council -- which on Sunday said it had qualified just six candidates, nearly all conservatives, for the presidential race -- Khamenei said it would be ''preferable for people from all political tendencies" to take part in the vote.

''Therefore, it seems the qualification of Mostafa Moin and Mohsen Mehralizadeh should be reviewed," state television quoted the letter as saying.

Former Education Minister Moin is an outspoken reformist who has promised to tackle human rights abuses if elected. Mehralizadeh is vice president for sport and was not considered a serious contender. Moin's disqualification by the Guardian Council, a panel of 12 clerics and jurists with sweeping powers, angered Iran's largest reformist party.