Iran Braces for Hardline President With Nuclear Deal in Balance

  • Reformists mostly excluded from June presidential election
  • Likely frontrunner is ultra-conservative who runs judiciary
Ebrahim Raisi after registering his candidacy for Iran's presidential elections, in Tehran, on May 15.Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
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Iranians will get to choose from a field of mostly hardline candidates hostile to the West and skeptical of the country’s troubled nuclear deal when they pick their next president in June.

The front-runner in the final list of seven candidates, published by the Interior Ministry, is the current head of the judiciary, ultraconservative cleric, Ebrahim Raisi.