Presidential candidate vows to strengthen ties with world states

  Former Iranian first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, who is one of the 8 presidential candidates in the June election, promised to further reinvigorate and expand Tehran's relations with the world countries using the potentials of the Iranian expatriates living in foreign states if he wins the June voting. "We have four millions of Iranian envoys in foreign countries and the future government should use this potential to strengthen relations with different states," Aref said in a televised program introducing his future agenda. He further asked for the utilization of all the existing potentials and capacities to consolidate and develop Iran's relations with the outside world, saying, "We should use scientific, cultural and media diplomacy to strengthen our relations with countries." Aref is one of the candidates of the 11th presidential election. He was born in 1951 in Yazd, central Iran. Aref received a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering from the University of Tehran, and the master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and communication engineering from Stanford University in 1975, 1976 and 1980, respectively. His PhD dissertation was on the information theory of networks, supervised by Prof. Thomas M. Cover. He introduced and analyzed deterministic relay networks which is later termed as Aref Networks. Until 1994, Aref was a faculty member of Isfahan University of Technology. Then he served as the chancellor of the University of Tehran (1994-1997). From 1997 to June 2000, he was the Minister of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone (PTT), a post that was later renamed to Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Then he served as the head of Management and Planning Organization of Iran. From 2001 to 2005, he was the first vice president of Iran under former President Mohammad Khatami. Aref is a member of the Expediency Council. The Guardian Council on Tuesday approved eight hopefuls, including Aref, to run in the upcoming presidential race slated for June 14. A total of 686 hopefuls registered from May 7-11 for the 11th presidential election. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election.