Iran election: Mohsen Rezaei profile He stood as a hard-line conservative - or "principlist" - in the 2005 poll, before dropping out at the last minute, and again in the disputed election of 2009, when he finished third in a four-man race. He initially supported widespread allegations that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory had been achieved through fraud, but later withdrew the accusations, enabling him to keep his place in the political establishment. As a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Mr Rezaei appears to have excellent security credentials. Yet despite his political profile as a hardliner, he is said to be disliked by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. Indeed, he is sometimes seen as closer to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei's political foe, and is secretary of the expediency council - an influential state body which Mr Rafsanjani heads. Mr Rezaei, has been a persistent critic of Mr Ahmadinejad - even before the president's fall from favour among the theocratic regime's top clerics. His views have been aired in Tabnak, a news website described as "linked" to him but which he is commonly believed to own. During his campaign, he emphasised the need to revive Iran's struggling economy. In a recent televised candidates' debate, Mr Rezaei warned that unemployment and the economic hardship created by western-led sanctions was driving Iran's young people towards addiction and even atheism. "Economic sanctions have created a danger," he said. They are a threat to the Islamic establishment and they also threaten religious beliefs.