TEHRAN, July 21 (AFP) - Iran`s embattled reformists said here on Wednesday they would back former Iranian prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi in presidential elections scheduled for June 2005.
"Given Mousavi`s high profile, him stepping forward for the presidency would be a step forward for the pro-reform movement," said government spokesman and reformist politician Abdollah Ramazanzadeh.
The spokesman said the reformist movement, which lost control of parliament in February elections, had already approached Mousavi, but did not say if he had agreed to stand for president next year.
Ramazanzadeh was speaking on the sidelines of a conference of Iran`s main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).
Other reformist groupings have also backed Mousavi, who served in the now-defunct position of prime minister from 1981 to 1989. Seen as a leftist within the Islamic republic, he was also a former foreign minister and was close to Iran`s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
He has largely kept out of politics since Khomeini`s death in 1989.
The second and final term in office of Iran`s incumbent president, embattled pro-reform cleric Mohammad Khatami, ends in June 2005.