US in no position to judge Iran electoral process: Analyst

Iranian political commentator Mohammad Marandi says as a supporter of dictatorships across the world, the US is in no position to pass judgment on Iran’s electoral process, Press TV reports.

“The United States does not criticize Israel for being an apartheid regime. It does not criticize Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and the other dictatorships,” Marandi said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

The Iranian analyst added that US allies in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar “not only do not have democracies or elections, they do not even have a constitution. They spread extremism both at the religious level as well as terrorism as we are now seeing in North Africa and in Syria.”

Marandi added that the US also supported former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak and the ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali until the very end.

Referring to Washington’s support for militants in Syria, Marandi stated that the US is funding the same terrorists and al-Qaeda forces whom it used as a pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, causing “misery for millions of people in this region, [and] killing endless numbers of people.”

“So there is no reason to think that the United States really cares at all about the will of the Iranian people,” the Iranian analyst said.

US State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, on May 21 criticized Iran’s Guardian Council over its vetting of presidential hopefuls.

A total of 686 individuals had registered from May 7 to 11 for the Islamic Republic’s 11th presidential election, which will be held on June 14.

Earlier this week, Iran’s Interior Ministry issued the list of eight candidates approved by the Guardian Council to run for president.

The candidates include Iranian lawmaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, President of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council Hassan Rohani, former First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Gharazi and former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati.

The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election.