The presidential election in Iran on June 14 is expected to produce a president loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and not improve prospects for an end to the country's nuclear standoff with the West.
The Guardian Council, composed of jurists and clerics who vet all candidates for elected office, has made a list of nearly eight candidates from 700 presidential hopefuls.
According to the Washington Times, Kenneth Katzman, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Congressional Research Service said that the remaining major candidates are all pliable tools of the supreme leader.
He added that none of the likely winners will attract significant momentum in the U.S. or the West to ease any sanctions. None of those figures are considered to be in any sense an improvement by the West, the report said.
Iran's supreme leader controls foreign policy and the country's nuclear ambitions.
Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said at a panel discussion at the Wilson Center on Thursday, said the core of foreign policy and domestic policy will remain the same because the supreme leader is the decision maker, but the tone can definitely change.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is intended for peaceful purposes, despite Western and Israeli suspicions that it is building an atomic weapon.
On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed sanctions legislation aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the report added.
