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Iran’s Supreme Leader has barred former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from standing in the 2017 Presidential election, according to the former director of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps media outlet.

Mehdi Fazaeli, who directed the Fars News Agency, said Khamenei issued the ban in a meeting with Ahmadinejad to prevent the repetition of the past “costly and detrimental experiences”.

Fazaeli added that 10 of the 12 members of the Guardian Council, who must approve Presidential candidates, had expressed objections to an Ahmadinejad campaign.

Several other media outlets reported the meeting, but did not give details.

Fazaeli’s account may have a political motivation. The IRGC were often at odds with Ahmadinejad, particularly in the latter years of his Presidency between 2005 and 2013. The former President even accused the Guards of corruption, with smuggling through illegal docks and ports.

In a long diatribe, Fazaeli said:

We should not forget that the second term of Ahmadinejad’s Presidency was one of the most stressful. It also cannot be ignored that we have seen little sign of change in his attitude and behavior.

Speculation has risen about an Ahmadinejad attempt to regain his post, fed by his appearances at public meetings and rallies. Earlier this summer, the Interior Ministry warned Ahmadinejad that any campaigning before the official start of the election is prohibited.

A series of regime figures have tried to pre-empt Ahmadinejad with denunciations. Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer Leader in Mashhad, said:

Mr. ​Ahmadinejad was an individual who went astray, died and is finished. Ahmadinejad is not a movement. He stood against the Guardianship of the Jurist [Supreme Leader] and collapsed.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of the hardline outlet Kayhan, reportedly noted Ahmadinejad’s dispute with the Supreme Leader in 2011 — with the President staging an 11-day boycott of his duties — and concluded, “When the Hezbollahis [religious conservatives] see this, they will not vote for him. I think it is unlikely that the Guardian Council will approve his qualifications.”

Another leading conservative cleric, Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam, asserted, “Ahmadinejad is not competent enough to return to power. He has ruined his image among many distinguished figures and this has pushed him to the sidelines.”

Revolutionary Guards Commander to US: Leave the Persian Gulf

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, has repeated the call for the US military to leave the Persian Gulf.

Speaking on the sidelines of a military parade in southern Iran on Wednesday, Jafari said that Iran — in line with the guidelines of the Supreme Leader — should “tell the Americans that they had better stop wasting the American people’s assets and wealth by malicious and harmful presence in the Persian Gulf”.

The commander said the US should go to the Bay of Pigs, the site of its ill-fated invasion of Cuba in 1961, for “adventurism or a muscle show”.

US officials have criticized Iran in recent weeks for attempted intimidation of American air and naval units in international waters.

The Iranian regime has responded by reiterating its challenge. Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said last Wednesday, “The presence of American forces in the Persian Gulf lacks any legal and international justification and is against the will of the regional nations.”

See Iran Daily, Sept 21: Regime to US Navy — Stay Out of Persian Gulf

The Supreme Leader set the tone for the campaign in May when he said:

“The Persian Gulf is the Iranian nation’s home…and the coasts of the Persian Gulf and large parts of the Sea of Oman coasts belong to this strong nation.

Today, the enemies are biting off more than they can chew. For example, they draw plans that Iran should not hold military war games in the Persian Gulf.

Other commanders supported Jafari’s comments as Iran displayed its military personnel and equipment. The Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Navy, General Ali Reza Tangsiri, said, “We regard the Persian Gulf as our home, and believe that no alien (forces) should be present in this region.”

Tangsiri said that, in addition to high-profile detentions of British and American naval personnel in recent years, Iranian forces had intercepted and held Canadian and Australian naval units.

Rouhani Meets British Prime Minister May

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has met British Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Iranian State media feature Rouhani’s call for closer cooperation, coming soon after Iran and Britain have named ambassadors following a break of almost five years in relations.

With Iran criticizing continued US sanctions and their effect on restoration of European banking and business links, Rouhani called for all sides to fulfill their obligations under the July 2015 nuclear agreement.

British media offer a different summary, emphasizing that May pressed Rouhani over the detention of Anglo-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, seized in April and given a five-year prison sentence earlier this month.

Iranian outlets do not refer to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case, in which formal charges have never been revealed publicly.

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Rouhani also met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, emphasizing the building of economic ties amid the continuing US restrictions:

And in a discussion with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Rouhani declared, “Terrorism is a threat against all of us and the two countries (Iran and Turkey) can play an important role in the fight against terrorism and insecurity in the region, Syria and Iraq in particular.”

There was no discussion in Iranian reports of the specifics of the Syrian conflict, in which Iran and Turkey support opposing forces. Instead, it portrayed Erdoğan as saying that Tehran and Ankara can play a “determining” role in defusing ongoing crises and establishing security in the region, particularly in Syria and Iraq.

Report: Another Reformist Editor Detained

Iranian security forces have arrested Sadra Mohaghegh, an editor at the reformist newspaper Shargh, according to his lawyer.

The attorney said no charges were revealed, but the Mehr News Agency said a journalist “S.M.” had been seized on Monday for his “relationship with counterrevolutionary media”.