Former Iranian president Hassan Rowhani has called for voters to support the only moderate candidate standing in the country's forthcoming presidential election.
Masoud Pezeshkian is capable of removing the shadow of sanctions, Rowhani said in a video message on Wednesday. He described Pezeshkian as loyal and honest.
Rowhani was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and is considered to be on the moderate end of the conservative wing of Iranian politics.
Another former president, Mohammad Khatami, has also endorsed the moderate.
Around 61 million voters are eligible on Friday to elect a new president following the death of Ebrahim Raisi. The Guardian Council, an Islamic supervisory body, has only authorized six candidates for the election. The council accepted the 69-year-old Pezeshkian as the only moderate candidate.
Pezeshkian criticized Iran's hardline headscarf policy during the election campaign, while at the same time declaring his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He also praised the attack on Israel with drones and missiles as a manifestation of the pride of the Iranian nation.
In addition to Pezeshkian, observers regard the hardliner Saeed Jalili, a former negotiator in nuclear negotiations, and the incumbent speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as front-runners in the election.
The West has imposed sanctions on Iran for violations of the nuclear agreement, among other things. Many people in Iran are disillusioned in the face of political repression, an economic crisis and the failed attempts at reform in recent decades.
In the autumn of 2022, the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests against the strict Islamic system of rule. Voter turnout in this year's parliamentary elections reached a record low of around 40%.
