Global Security Newswire

One-time Iranian atomic envoy Hassan Rohani said on Thursday he intends to campaign for the nation's presidency, Reuters reported.

Rohani headed talks with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom that led Iran to halt uranium enrichment operations from 2003 to 2005. He left office following the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

Tehran subsequently resumed enrichment and has since resisted all diplomatic entreaties and sanctions aimed at persuading it to curb wok that could be used to produce nuclear-weapon material. Iran says its atomic work has no military component.

Iranian voters will decide on Ahmadinejad's replacement in June.

"We need a new management for the country but not based on quarreling, inconsistency and eroding domestic capacity, but through unity, consensus and attracting honest and efficient people," Rohani said on Thursday in an address to backers.

The outcome of the vote would probably not greatly alter Iran's nuclear direction, as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has final say on such policy matters, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Iran's announcement this week that it would activate two uranium mines and a processing plant drew an expression of worry on Wednesday from the United States, Agence France-Presse reported.

"They have continued to move forward, we are very concerned about what they are doing," a high-level State Department official said.

Iranian officials did not raise the matter during nuclear talks last week with diplomats from China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United Sates, the source said.

"We weren't blindsided about it, because we are rarely blindsided about the things that they are considering. But they did not specify that they were going to do this," according to the source.