As of 6:00 p.m. local time, an unknown assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at the election headquarters of presidential candidate Dr. Saeed Jalili in Khorasan Razavi, Mashhad, Iran. No injuries were reported, and the fire was extinguished. Reports indicated an assailant—although unclear if there was more than one perpetrator—also attacked people with a knife.
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— LiveIranNews (@Iran_News_2023) June 20, 2024
Iran is holding snap elections on June 28 following the sudden death of former Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
In 2013, Saeed Jalili also ran for president. Supporters referred to him as “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s secret candidate.”
According to an interview with a Mashhad cleric, Ahmad Alam-ol-Hoda, Jalili received a doctorate in Political Science from Imam Sadegh University and was well-regarded as a fighter in the 5th Division of Khorasan, losing one leg in a military operation and earning the nickname “living martyr.” Jalili previously served as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2007-2013 and the lead nuclear negotiator for Iran in 2008.
Now current CIA Director William Burns—at the time Undersecretary of State for for Political Affairs—described Jalili:
“[Nuclear negotiator Saeed] Jalili then embarked on nearly forty minutes of meandering philosophizing about Iran’s culture and history, and the constructive role it could play in the region. He could be stupefyingly opaque when he wanted to avoid straight answers, and this was certainly one of those occasions. He mentioned at one point that he still lectured part-time at Tehran University. I did not envy his students.”
