Mohsen Rezaei is not seen as a leading challenger but reformists who see a strong opportunity to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election hope Rezaei may be able to take votes away from the incumbent. Rezaei has opposed Ahmadinejad’s handling of the economy and his hard-line foreign policy. Rezaei led the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war in the eighties and afterward but then retired from the military to enter politics.
