Conservative cleric visits Kurdistan in race for presidential election

The conservative cleric relatively unknown to the outside world and a main rival of President Rouhani visited Kurds in Iran and promised better future.

SANANDAJ, Iran (Kurdistan24) - The conservative cleric relatively unknown to the outside world and a main rival of President Rouhani visited Kurds in Iran and promised better future.

The 56-year-old Ebrahim Raisi visited, Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province and denounced the high rates of unemployment there.

“The potentials of the people of Kurdistan are very high. I believe that in artistic, financial and agricultural sectors, there have been great works done by the people of this region but in no ways it is sufficient,” he told Iranian state media Wednesday.

“It is unacceptable that given the rich and valuable wealth and resources in this region, the young people of this area have difficulty finding jobs. That is unacceptable for us,” he added.

Raisi is the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the wealthiest charity in the Muslim world and the organization in charge of Iran’s holiest shrine.

He appears to quietly emerge as a frontrunner to be Iran’s next supreme leader.

Raisi has faulted Iran's economic performance under Rouhani and his pursuit of detente that in 2015 yielded a landmark deal with world powers under which Tehran curbed its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Rouhani promised to bring Iran out of its international isolation. But many Iranians are concerned that he has not been able to improve the economy despite the lifting of sanctions in January.

Rouhani received a lot of support among Iranian Kurds who said they had to choose between 'bad and worse,' but the ongoing economic problems, executions, and suppressions of Kurds has disappointed many.

Iranian Kurds say they find themselves between a rock and a hard place where they are little known in the world and can't deal with the extreme suppressions of the fanatical regime.

"They act like they own the country and Kurds are their tenants, that giving us our rights is an act of charity," Berlin-based Kurdish journalist Kaveh Ghoreishi tweeted.

Kurdish-Iranian parties in an unprecedented move announced in a joint press conference they will boycott the upcoming “undemocratic” elections.