Fars news agency, an IRGC media outlet, said in a May 5 commentary that former reformist President Mohammad Khatami is no longer popular enough to rally Iranian voters behind potential reformist presidential candidate.

Khatami who used to promote reformist candidates for presidential and parliamentary elections acknowledged himself in early 2021 that he is no longer able to push the voters to support those he names as candidates.

According to Fars, in recent elections, Khatami's support did not help candidates as his popularity has fallen below its 2009 level when he rallied millions of voters behind Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is currently under house arrest as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei believes those who bring the masses to the streets are "criminal."

Fars wrote: "In the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections Khatami made all reformist parties to withdraw their candidates and instead put their support behind Hassan Rouhani. They did so and Rouhani was Iran's President for 8 years. All of his ministers are the members of a range of reformist parties. Nonetheless, the Rouhani administration is so incompetent that not only Rouhani lost the voters support, but the inefficiency of his government even adversely affected Khatami's popularity."

However, Khatami's embarrassing track record includes other big mistakes such as promoting some hardliners as candidates for the Expediency Council. Meanwhile, the so-called reformist candidates who won the Majles election in 2016, thanks to Khatami's support, performed so poorly as lawmakers that it appalled those who usually voted for reformist candidates. These included Khatami's vice president Mohammad Reza Aref who did not speake a word during the four years in parliament claiming that he followed a "strategy of silence.”

The last time Khtami sent out a video to support reformist candidates for the 2020 Majles elections was the final blow to his reputation as all the candidates won less than 25,000 votes all together.

Not only Khatami seems to have lost his popular appeal, but he has also fallen out of favor with Khamenei. In February, he wrote a 37-page letter to Khamenei appealing to him to pay attention to Iranian reformists. Khamenei did not bother to reply, but his aides and supporters in the hardline press, including Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari lashed out at Khatami and told him he should beg for forgiveness for his past performance.

Fars cited an academic poll which predicts if Khatami supports a political figure such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif whether against Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi, Zarif will lose 6 percent support with voters.

The agency added that the poll was conducted before the scandal that followed the leaking of Zarif's controversial comments against the IRGC and former Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani. Fars opined that Zarif is now less likely to take part in the election as a candidate as the damage done by the leak has been overwhelming.

The Iranian press on Wednesday, extensively covered the news about reformist candidates. Arman daily argued that most reformist candidates have very little appeal for the voters, but despite the negative impact of the leaked interview on Zarif's popularity, he is still more popular than other reform figures such as vice president Es’haq Jahangiri and former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh.