PHOTO: Supreme Leader and former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in their meeting on August 30

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Iran’s Friday Prayer leaders have praised the Supreme Leader for his ban on former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s candidacy in the 2017 Presidential election.

Addressing the crowd in Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani claimed that the Supreme Leader’s “intervention” in the elections was aimed at preventing the creation of “divisions and tension within society”. He hailed Ayatollah Khamenei for “always considering the problems of the future” during his Friday sermon.

The head of the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati went even farther in the denunciation of Ahmadinejad, saying Khamenei’s decision was an “appropriate action” against the “outbreak of a new sedition”.

And Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, an Assembly of Experts members and former Intelligence Minister, lambasted Ahmadinejad for “acting in such a way that the Supreme Leader had to publicly announce his view that he should not run in the elections”.

In a meeting on August 30, the Supreme Leader told Ahmadinejad of the effective ban. However, it was only on Monday, after claims circulated in Iranian media for two weeks, that Khamenei confirmed that he had “advised” the former President not to run.

See Iran Daily, Sept 27: Supreme Leader — Ahmadinejad Cannot Run for President

Ahmadinejad, who “won” re-election in 2009 in a disputed contest, left office in 2013 with a crippled Iranian economy and accusations of mismanagement, as well as public battles with the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards.

Despite facing continued criticism from regime outlets, the former President has been making a series of appearances at rallies, leading to speculation that he was preparing for a campaign to return to power. Last month the Interior Ministry warned Ahmadinejad that any campaigning before the official opening of the election next year is illegal.

Salehi: Ahmadinejad Opposed Nuclear Talks with US

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, added more criticism with the claim that Ahmadinejad opposed the secret negotiations with the US in 2012 that paved the way for the nuclear agreement three years later.

Salehi, the Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2013, said that Ahmadinejad considered the talks — authorized by the Supreme Leader — to be a “mistake” and that the former President made the negotiations “very difficult” by refusing to fulfill his duties as the coordinator between the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council.

Iran: We Talked with Saudi Arabia About Syria in December 2011

Iran’s former Intelligence Minister has revealed talks with Saudi Arabia in December 2011 about the Syrian crisis.

“Sessions were held at the National Security Council and it was decided to dispatch a group to Saudi Arabia for negotiation,” Heidar Moslehi said Thursday.

The former Minister said he spoke with Crown Prince Nayef, who was also Interior Minister, in Riyadh. However, the talks failed when Nayef said that “the House of Saud had given more than $40 billion to Saddam during the war on Iran and would continue to confront the Islamic revolution by all means”, according to Moslehi.

At the time, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said only that Moslehi’s trip was aimed at removing misunderstandings and discussing security issues”.