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TEHRAN, Iran Iran has announced the final list of candidates for next month's presidential race, which will largely serve as a referendum on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

President Hassan Rouhani is widely seen as the front-runner, but could face tough competition from hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and popular among hard-liners. Former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to run but was disqualified.

The following candidates were approved by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates for Iran's elections. Half of its 12 members are clerics appointed by Khamenei, who also makes all final decisions on major policies.

HASSAN ROUHANI

Rouhani, 68, is a moderate elected in 2013 on pledges of greater personal freedoms and improved relations with the West. His government negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling international sanctions.

Since the deal went into effect, Iran has doubled its oil exports and inked multi-billion-dollar aircraft deals with Boeing and Airbus. But critics of the deal say the economic benefits have yet to filter down to ordinary Iranians, creating an opening for Rouhani's hard-line rivals.

Early in his tenure, in 2013, he shared a phone call with then-President Barack Obama, the highest-level exchange between the two countries since Iran's 1979 revolution and the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.

Rouhani has faced pushback from conservatives and hard-liners, who criticized the nuclear deal as giving too much away and who have blocked many of his Cabinet picks.

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EBRAHIM RAISI

Raisi, 56, is a hard-line cleric close to Khamenei who has vowed to combat poverty and corruption. He could pose the biggest challenge to Rouhani, especially if he can unify hard-liners.

Last year, Khamenei appointed Raisi as head of the Imam Reza charity foundation, which manages a vast conglomerate of businesses and endowments in Iran. Khamenei called Raisi a "trustworthy and highly experienced" person, causing many to wonder if he might also be a possible successor to the supreme leader himself.

Raisi, who is currently a law professor, previously served as attorney general and deputy judiciary chief. He is a member of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that will decide Khamenei's successor, and a prosecutor at a special court that tries clerics.

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ESHAQ JAHANGIRI

Jahangiri, 60, is a first vice president in Rouhani's government and a fellow moderate.

He was the minister of industries and mines from 1997 to 2005, under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, and before that served as governor of Isfahan Province.

He was close to the late and influential President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as well as Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force. Soleimani has played a key role in Iran's efforts to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria and help neighboring Iraq combat the Islamic State group.

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MOSTAFA HASHEMITABA

Hashemitaba, who served as minister of industry in the 1980s, is a pro-reform figure who previously ran for president in 2001.

Both Jahangiri and Hashemitaba are expected to promote Rouhani. Their candidacies appear to be aimed at providing balance in the face of three hard-line and conservative candidates.

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MOHAMMAD BAGHER QALIBAF

Qalibaf, 55, the conservative mayor of Tehran, is running for president for the third time, having previously lost to Ahmadinejad in 2005 and Rouhani in 2013.

His candidacy could be marred by January's massive fire at the Plasco building, a historic high-rise in downtown Tehran. The fire caused the building to collapse and killed 26 people, including 16 firefighters.

Qalibaf was Iran's chief of police from 2000 to 2005 and commander of the Revolutionary Guard's air force from 1997 to 2000. He is also a pilot, certified to fly certain Airbus passenger planes.

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MOSTAFA MIRSALIM

Mirsalim, 69, was shot and wounded during the unrest leading up to the 1979 revolution. He went on to serve as deputy interior minister and police chief. He was the minister of culture for four years under Rafsanjani, a centrist who was president from 1989 to 1997.

Read more:
A look at Iran's presidential candidates - Fox News

A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back Wall Street Journal (subscription) A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back. For a year, the British accountant has sought the release of his aid-worker wife, Nazanin, after Iran jailed her for allegedly threatening national security. His ... and more »

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A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Iranian-American groups attempted to deliver another legal blow to President Donald Trumps efforts to keep refugees and immigrants from six mostly Muslim nations out of the U.S.

Those groups, plus about a dozen people, asked a U.S. judge in Washington Friday to block portions of the presidents March 6 executive order and to add that ruling to previous decisions from Maryland and Hawaii federal courts that put parts of his edict on hold nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan immediately wanted to know what it was those suing wanted from her. What are you asking me to enjoin? the judge asked plaintiffs attorney John Freedman when he stepped to the podium, adding later that she didnt want to grant or deny his clients request, just as an academic exercise.

Freedman called the presidential decree inherently discriminatory, and said Chutkans ruling is needed to protect the the rights of his clients.

A win in Washington would likely boost arguments in support of the prior rulings when a federal appeals court considers the Maryland appeal next month, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said.

Theres all kinds of reasons to proceed, he said, explaining that a win gives opponents of the presidents immigration crackdown public and legal momentum and provides reinforcement in the event either the Hawaii or Maryland outcome is overturned. Each of those trial-level courts answer to a different regional federal appeals courts. Divergent appellate outcomes would likely send the cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trumps order was his second attempt to halt for 90 days the issuance of visas to travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, while simultaneously stopping refugeesfrom entering the U.S. for 120 days. The prior order, issued Jan. 27, was more broadly written. It was blocked by a San Francisco-based appeals court reviewing a decision in federal court in Seattle.

Attorneys challenging Trump have contended the orders were thinly disguised attempts to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., fulfilling a campaign pledge. Freedman and plaintiffs lawyer Johnathan Smith each cited statements made by the president and his advisers as proof of motive for the order.

Government lawyers have fought to separate those campaign comments from acts taken after the president took office. But that defense has been undercut by the presidents own rhetoric. At a Nashville, Tennessee, rally only hours after the March 15 ruling by a Hawaii judge, Trump called the revised policy a watered-down version of the failed first effort, adding that he still preferred the first.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler touted the differences between the first and second executive orders in court, telling Chutkan the revised version was facially neutral with regard to religion. He said the measures were necessary national-security precautions and that courts cant second guess the presidents judgment in protecting the country.

Chutkan, a one-time federal public defender appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, is the first judge to consider the legality of the presidents decree since U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in Alexandria denied a request to block it on March 24.

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The Washington lawsuit was filed by the Pars Equality Center, a Menlo Park, California-based social and legal-service organization for Iranian-Americans. Among those joining Pars in that case is the Iranian American Bar Association, whose president, attorney Babak Yousefzadeh, was one of two people who testified in support of their bid for an order blocking Trumps decree, at an April 18 proceeding before Chutkan.

The presidents order, Yousefzadeh said, was preventing Iranian medical students from participating in U.S. programs and depriving Iranian Americans from enjoying the same rights as other Americans, including the ability to be visited by relatives from overseas and have them take part in family occasions.

Plaintiffs lawyer Smith argued for the Washington-based Universal Muslim Association of America, which had filed a parallel suit.

The cases are Pars Equality Center v. Trump, 17-cv-255, and Universal Muslim Association of America v. Trump, 17-cv-537, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

More here:
Trump Travel Ban Back in Court as Iran Groups Open New Front - Bloomberg

A skeptical Trump administration has confirmed that Iran continues to comply with the 2015 nuclear disarmament deal but says the White House is conducting an internal review of the landmark arms control accord that President Trump once called the worst deal ever.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a letter to Congress that the National Security Council will lead an interagency review of whether easing economic sanctions against Iran as part of the accord is vital to the national security interests of the United States.

Iran remains a leading state sponsor of terror through many platforms and methods, Tillerson wrote.

The Treasury Department still maintains Obama-era sanctions aimed at Tehrans support for terrorist groups and its ballistic missile program, and those conceivably could be tweaked. But any moves to impose a major new regime of penalties could undermine the accord and spur a new nuclear crisis in the Middle East.

The review also could recommend more subtle ways to apply pressure to Tehran, which actively supports militant groups such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as Houthi fighters in Yemen and President Bashar Assads military in Syria, all of which the U.S. opposes.

It comes as the White House has scrambled to balance the threat of direct military action and the pursuit of diplomatic options, especially with China, to slow or block North Korea from expanding its nuclear arsenal and developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could deliver a warhead to U.S. shores.

Tensions rose sharply in northeast Asia last week when the Trump administration and North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns government traded bellicose threats about a possible clash over an expected North Korean nuclear test.

In the end, Pyongyang test-fired a midrange ballistic missile that fell into the sea seconds after launch, defusing the crisis for now. And White House warnings that an aircraft carrier strike force was rushing north proved false; the armada was 3,500 miles away last weekend although the Pentagon insisted Wednesday that the Carl Vinson and three other warships are now en route to the Sea of Japan.

As a candidate, Trump vowed to rip up the nuclear deal with Iran as soon as he took office, one of several signature campaign promises on foreign policy that he has ignored.

Several members of Trumps incoming Cabinet said during their Senate confirmation hearings that they had decided the accord had effectively constrained Irans ability to produce a nuclear bomb, and Trump has not moved to abrogate the accord.

Trump similarly has not moved to cancel the Paris climate accord of 2015, despite his vow on the campaign trail, nor has he abandoned the one China policy that has guided U.S. relations with Beijing for 40 years or reversed the Obama administrations opening to Cuba, although a high-level review of Cuba policy is underway.

Congress has required the State Department to notify it every 90 days whether Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal, which required Tehran to dismantle or disable its nuclear infrastructure, including its ability to produce bomb-grade fuel.

This was the first notification under the Trump administration.

The United Nations Security Council lifted a web of trade, banking and other sanctions on Iran last year after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.s nuclear watchdog agency, certified Tehran's compliance with the nuclear deal.

The IAEA continues to monitor Irans facilities through regular visits, cameras and other surveillance systems. Irans leaders have always insisted they did not seek to build a bomb.

In January, a year after the deal came into force, the IAEA said that Iran had reduced its uranium stockpile by 98% and had removed two-thirds of its centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium.

Critics long have complained that the accord, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, did not address Irans support for terrorist groups. It focused only on curbing Tehrans ability to someday produce a nuclear bomb, which was seen as the primary threat to global security.

Since taking office, administration officials have realized that pulling out of the deal would be more complicated than Trump had suggested at his campaign rallies.

Since it was negotiated with Iran by six world powers the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany a unilateral U.S. withdrawal would create diplomatic chaos, especially if Washington were to impose new sanctions over the objections of the other signatories.

Moreover, numerous security experts have warned that abandoning the deal could give Iran an excuse to eject the IAEA inspectors, rebuild its infrastructure, resume uranium enrichment and take other steps toward building a bomb but deprive Washington of the diplomatic leverage and on-the-ground intelligence gathering needed to punish Tehran.

Even Israel, one of the most vocal opponents of the accord when it was being negotiated, has told the Trump administration that it should focus on finding additional measures to crack down on Iranian-backed terrorism, not linger on voiding the existing accord, diplomatic sources said.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, asked about the Iran certification Wednesday, said Trump would await the review before deciding on the next step.

That's why we're undergoing this interagency review, Spicer said at a news briefing. We will have recommendations that will be presented to the president on where the deal stands and how to act further.

For now, the administration took steps to shore up its alliance with Saudi Arabia, Irans chief rival in the region. Iran is a Shiite Muslim theocracy whereas the Saudi kingdom is Sunni dominated.

Relations with Riyadh had deteriorated under the Obama administration, which criticized Saudi airstrikes on civilian targets in neighboring Yemen in that countrys civil war.

On a visit to Riyadh on Wednesday, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis told Saudi officials that it was important to reinforce Saudi Arabias resistance to Irans mischief.

Speaking later to reporters, Mattis added, Everywhere you look [that] theres trouble in the region, you find Iran. He said the Trump administration would help countries trying to checkmate Iran.

Critics of the nuclear accord with Iran applauded the interagency review as a way to increase pressure on Tehran.

"It underscores the Trump administrations commitment to ramp up pressure on Iran through the use of sanctions tied to terrorism and other malign activities," said Mark Dubowitz, head of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that opposed the Iran accord.

Tillerson made the same point later Wednesday at the State Department, saying the White House will look at more than whether Iran is meeting its obligations under the nuclear accord, citing its human rights record, its support for militants and what he called its alarming and ongoing provocations to export terror and violence.

The Iran nuclear deal, he told reporters, is "another example of buying off" an adversary that "only delays" production of nuclear weapons, citing a series of failed diplomatic deals with North Korea since the mid-1990s.

"A comprehensive Iran policy requires we address all of the threats posed by Iran and it's clear there are many," he said.

Bold promises, fewer results: Trump's executive orders don't always live up to his claims

Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan in Washington contributed to this report.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter

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The Iran nuclear deal that Trump once vowed to tear apart is holding at least for now - Los Angeles Times

President Trump's team is working to "checkmate Iran" through enhanced coordination with Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

"What we're seeing is the nations in the region and others elsewhere trying to checkmate Iran and the amount of disruption, the amount of instability they can cause," Mattis told reporters in Riyadh following a meeting with Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense. "It's got to be ended."

Mattis said his meetings with Saudi Arabian leaders were "highly productive in terms of outcomes." Those meetings coincided with an announcement from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hinting that the Trump administration might withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by former President Barack Obama's national security team.

"Strategic patience is a failed approach," Tillerson said Thursday during a short address at the State Department. "The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran."

The two comments appear to signal a major shift in U.S. policy towards confrontation with Iran.

"We have both spoken, His Majesty has talked to President Trump," Mattis said. "We have come to conclusions about our cooperation for the future. And now that we have the blessing of our leadership, it's important we actually do something with it we actually do something as we reinforce Saudi Arabia's resistance to Iran's mischief and make you more effective with your military as we work together as partners."

That could start in Yemen, where the U.S. military under Mattis and Trump has stepped up airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia group that is fighting against a Saudi-aligned government.

"Our goal is to push this conflict into the U.N.-brokered negotiations to ensure that it ends as soon as possible," Mattis added. "The international community will make progress on it. We'll have to overcome Iran's efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah."

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Trump, US allies working to 'checkmate' Iran - Washington Examiner