Journalist Séamus Malekafzali joins me to try to get a head start on assessing the state of Iran’s June presidential election, a task that I acknowledge is a bit of a sucker’s game since the Guardian Council hasn’t started rejecting candidates yet. At this point the only thing we know for sure is that term-limited incumbent Hassan Rouhani won’t be sticking around.

But along the way we discuss the current direction of Iranian politics, the increasing politicization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and check in with a couple of prominent presidential candidates from years past, including once and would-be future President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Check out Séamus’s writing on Iranian politics and other stories about the Middle East at his Substack newsletter, and also check out his podcast, The Greatest Sin, here or at Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

(The episode title refers to the current year on the Iranian calendar, if that wasn’t clear.)

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