Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami announced yesterday he would reluctantly stand for re-election next month. Mr Khatami's reforms are opposed by powerful Islamic hardliners.
Ending months of suspense, the soft-spoken cleric registered his candidacy for the June 8th polls which he is widely expected to win. But he said: "Personally, I would prefer to be somewhere else" after registering as a candidate for another four-year term.
"I thought about whether I could be at the service of the country and the people by being president or by taking up another job," Mr Khatami said.
Conservative opposition has forced the removal from office of key allies, the shutdown of sympathetic newspapers and the jailing of fellow reformers. Hardliners have also hampered Mr Khatami's drive to improve relations with the West.
A leading moderate voice in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the 57-year-old cleric has often complained that he lacks the necessary powers to reform Iran.
Wiping away tears, he said the decision to stand again had been tough, but he had bowed to pressure from political friends and foes alike who feared turmoil if he did not run.
"The elections will show whether the people want me or not, and whatever the people want is final," he said.
With just two days left to a deadline for nominations, conservatives are struggling to find a serious challenger to him.
The popular mandate is one of the few weapons Mr Khatami has in his political armoury against the conservatives entrenched in the judiciary and the 12-man Guardian Council, which has the power to veto laws.
His former interior minister, Mr Abdollah Nouri, was jailed in 1999 for political and religious dissent. And the culture minister, Ayatollah Mohajerani, was eased from office last December by conservatives who saw him as too liberal.
The deputy interior minister, Mr Mostafa Tajzadeh, charged with overseeing the presidential polls, was barred from public office on Wednesday.
Dozens of pro-reform newspapers which sprang up in the first two years of Mr Khatami's government have now been banned and prominent journalists jailed. Some 70 liberal intellectuals have been detained in recent months.