Iran's chief nuclear negotiator joins presidential race

TEHRAN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- To many's surprise, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili made an announcement on Saturday about his decision to run for the country's upcoming presidential contest.

Earlier in the day, he appeared in Iran's Interior Ministry and registered for the race slated for June 14.

Other hopefuls, either before or on the registration day, made comments on their campaigns, but Jalili left the Interior Ministry without making any remarks or talking to reporters.

Jalili was born in 1965 in Iran's northern holy city of Mashhad and holds a Ph.D. degree in political science from Iran's Imam Sadeq University.

He is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and joined the Foreign Ministry in 1989.

He was appointed a senior director in policy planning in the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran in 2001, and was named deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs and an advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

A hardliner conservative, he is currently Iran's chief nuclear negotiator with the world powers and is secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Candidates for Iran's 11th presidential election began to register on Tuesday and will end on Saturday. So far, over 400 hopefuls have registered for the campaign.

After registration is over, the Iranian Guardian Council of Constitution will study the qualification of the candidates in two weeks.

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