Saeed Jalili

For about a year now I've wondered if Saeed Jalili might be the strongest contender for president within the realities of Iran's political system.  Here is a profile of him by Laura Rozen:

Jalili, 47, a trusted Khamenei aide who has served since 2007 as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) — the Iranian equivalent of National Security Advisor–has managed to largely bypass the bitter feuds that have polarized Iran’s ruling factions, analysts and associates observe. As a candidate who may be able to unite key conservative factions, a Jalili presidency potentially offers the prospect of a more consolidated Iranian leadership, which might be able to muster internal Iranian consensus if the Leader decides to make a deal, some analysts suggest.

Born in 1965 in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad, where Supreme Leader Khamenei is also from, Jalili is an Iran-Iraq war vet who joined Iran’s foreign ministry around 1990. (Earning his PhD from Iran’s Imam Sadeqh University, Jalili wrote his doctoral dissertation on the prophet Mohammad’s diplomacy.) He worked in the 1990s as an official in Iran’s foreign ministry, and then in 2001 joined the Supreme Leader’s office. In 2005, he became an advisor to new Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since 2007 he has served as the Iranian equivalent of National Security Advisor and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.

With no real economics or management experience and a modest, mild mannered persona, Jalili may have a hard time winning popular support–even with the quiet backing of Khamenei and the machinery of Iran’s “deep state” security establishment (the Sepah, Revolutionary Guard, etc.), the Iranian analyst assessed.

The part about popular support does matter, however, since one thing the regime wants is the legitimacy of high voter turnouts and displays of public enthusiasm.