Medical Researcher Set to Become Next President of Iran?  (January 22, 2005)

    Nature reports that come the Iranian presidential elections this coming June "Mostafa Moin, who was widely respected as science minister, will stand for President as the candidate of the reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF). Under Iran's constitution Mohammad Khatami, the current president, cannot be re-elected as he will have served two terms.

Moin, a paediatrician and medical researcher, is president of the Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute in Tehran. He was science minister from 2000 to 2003, when he resigned, purportedly in protest at conservative policies and mass arrests of students.

As Nature points out, his "candidacy might yet be disqualified by the Guardians Council, a constitutional oversight body." Nevertheless, "Moin is already setting out some policies, saying that he favours promoting academic freedom. He also wants to develop Iran's economy through science and technology, and says he hopes to reverse the brain drain of the country's best scientists."

But Moin's cause isn't being helped by the light banter currently emanating from the neoconservatively controlled United States who seem bent on playing diplomatic silly buggers.