TEHRAN, Apr. 23 (MNA) -- Expediency Council member Mohammad-Reza Aref has said that he is prepared to run in the next presidential election, a report says.

In an interview posted on the Reformists Election Headquarters website on Tuesday, Aref has said if former president Mohammad Khatami would not be willing to run for the presidential election, then he is prepared to contest the post.
“Khatami is the best person for governing the country, however, if for any reason he would not want to appear in the (presidential) arena in regard to problems and threats facing the country, I am prepared to run for the future election,” the former first vice president told the Reformists Election Headquarters website.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s term will expire in mid-summer 2009.
Asked about cooperation between the next conservative-dominated parliament and the next likely-reformist government, Aref said, “Reformists... are not (power) monopolist and they can and like to cooperate with any political party.”
However, Reformists Election Headquarters spokesman Hedayat Aqaei told the Mehr News Agency that the Reformists Headquarters has not made any decisions about the presidential elections yet.
Aqaei added Aref’s statements are “his personal views”.
The reformist camp has not had any talks about the future presidential election with Aref, he explained.
Meanwhile, Jahanbakhsh Khanjani of the reformist election headquarters announced that after the runoff election, a policymaking council will be established to make decisions about the next presidential elections.
He told MNA that the faction has a “special program” for the upcoming presidential election.
Khanjani, who served as Interior Ministry spokesman in the former reformist administration, said the members of the reformist coalition’s policymaking council will form the future council members.
Abdolvahed Musavi Lari, Majid Ansari, Safdar Hosseini, Mohammad Salamati, Ashraf Borujerdi, Habibollah Bitaraf, and Hossein Mar’ashi were coalition’s policymaking council members for parliamentary election.
NS/RMN/PA END MN