Iran’s clerical body charged with vetting candidates has disqualified former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in next month’s presidential election, state TV says.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who remains a deeply polarising figure even among Iranian hard-liners, had shocked the country by registering last week.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously urged him not to run.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Mr Ahmadinejad was president from 2005 to 2013, and was best known abroad for his incendiary rhetoric toward Israel, his questioning of the scale of the Holocaust and his efforts to ramp up Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Guardian Council, a clerical body that vets candidates, said it had compiled a final list of candidates earlier on Thursday and that the Interior Ministry would announce their names by Sunday.