Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranians voted in fiercely-contested presidential polls on May 19, standing in long lines to choose between Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent who wants normal ties with the West, and a populist challenger backed by powerful security hawks.

Iran's reformist former president Mohammad Khatami has skirted a media ban to endorse moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani for a second term over conservative challengers in a May 19 election.

The Iranian-born Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab has denied charges against him in the case over attempting to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, while Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager of Halkbank, said he has no connection to the case. 

Iran's former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that he won't endorse other candidates in next month's election, after he and his deputy were barred from running.

"We clearly announce that we have not and will not support any candidate in the upcoming elections," he said in a letter, signed by himself and his former deputy and presidential hopeful Hamid Baghaie.

Campaigning began on April 21 for Iran's presidential election with incumbent Hassan Rouhani facing a tough battle against hardliners, though not from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was barred from standing.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's former two-time president, has registered to contest the 12th round of presidential elections in Iran, Al-Alam reports.

Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on April 12 stunned the country by unexpectedly filing to run in the May presidential election, contradicting a recommendation from the supreme leader to stay out of the race.

Iran plans to revalue its rial tenfold and revert to the currency's old name, the toman, according to a bill approved on Dec. 7 by President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has reported.

The currency was called the toman until the 1930s and most Iranians still refer to it by that name.

There is a celebratory mood in anti-government circles in Turkey over the arrest in the U.S. of Reza Zarrab, the Turkish businessman of Iranian origin, who is reportedly also a citizen of Iran and Azerbaijan. He is charged with conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions and transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Iranian administration headed by then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian government has said a death sentence decision for billionaire Babak Zanjani on corruption charges can change if he repays his debt of around $2.8 billion in cash to the state.