The candidates in Iran’s 2021 presidential election have started to move from a campaigning stage of merely laying out their own plans for the future to one of directly taking on one another.

A leading Reformist daily says the Reformist faction would harm its own image if it throws its support behind presidential candidate Nasser Hemmati since he is seen as a key economic decision-maker in the Rouhani administration.

Presidential candidate Saeed Jalili says he has drawn up a plan to boost Iran’s foreign exchange earnings, under which all administration bodies, not just the Petroleum Ministry, would be tasked with helping import foreign currencies into the country.

In order to achieve success in his executive mission, the president needs to adjust its domestic agenda and foreign policy to the nation’s will.

Presidential candidate Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi says his potential administration could build four million housing units during its four-year term as part of his agenda to address high housing prices in the country.

Media affiliated with Iran’s Principlist camp say an unspoken competition has been underway between Nasser Hemmati and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, two presidential candidates associated with the Reformists, to rally the support of Reformist leaders.

Presidential candidate Nasser Hemmati described the sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States as one of Iran’s “most fundamental problems,” blaming the restrictions for more than have of the country’s economic woes.

Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei says his economic agenda will focus, among other things, on increasing and stabilizing the value of Iran’s national currency if he wins the election.

Iranian presidential candidates Alireza Zakani, who is a Principlist, and Nasser Hemmati, a Moderate generally viewed as close to the Reformists, engage in a war of words on Twitter over Iran’s economic hardships.

Presidential candidate Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi calls on the Iranian youth to go to the ballot boxes in the June 18 presidential vote, despite all the woes they faced during the terms of President Rouhani.