TEHRAN - A leading Iranian conservative clerical group has endorsed veteran diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 14 presidential election, a media report said on Sunday.
The Mehr news agency said a majority of members of the Qom Seminary Scholars Association at a meeting on Saturday gave their support to Velayati, quoting group chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a former conservative head of the judiciary.
The association is one of the two leading conservative groups in the holy city of Qom, the clerical nerve-centre of Iran. The other, the Combatant Clerics Association, has not yet endorsed one of the eight presidential candidates approved by the hardline electoral watchdog the Guardians Council.