Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie

• Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to contest ally's 'unjust' vote ban

  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he will ask supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to reverse what he branded the unjust disqualification of a close aide from next month's presidential election.

• Iran's Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani barred from standing for president

  Iran's moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a former government official Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie have been barred from contesting the June 14 presidential election, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

• Iran's presidential election race opens up as surprise candidates enter fray

  After the huge protests that followed the 2009 election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have hoped June polls would quietly install a loyal conservative president, but the surprise candidacies of two major independents may scupper that.

• Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives new job to aide seen as possible heir

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has moved his chief of staff, seen as a potential successor and a target of criticism from hardline conservatives, to another job, according to the president's official website on Saturday.

• Tehran President Ahmadinejad warns authorities against arrests in his govt.

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today warned the authorities against making arrests of members in his government whom he vowed to defend, the official IRNA news agency reported."I consider defending the cabinet as my duty... the cabinet is a red line and if they want to touch the cabinet, then defending it is my duty", Ahmadinejad was quoted ...