Mahmoud Kashani parliament. Kashani founded Islamic Republican Party with Mohammad Beheshti and Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and was secretary-general of the party from 1979 to 1981. He was appointed as head of the Iranian delegation to the International Court of Justice in Iran's case with the United States in December 1981 by then-Prime Minister Mohammad-Ali Rajai but was removed from his position by Mir-Hossein Mousavi. He was independent candidate in 1985 presidential election which receives 1,402,416 (10.1%) of the votes behind winner Ali Khamenei. He was also nominated in 2001 presidential election which he lost to Mohammad Khatami and was ranked as the 5th
2009 Mir-Hossein Mousavi presidential campaign one of the original founders of the Iranian reformist camp, he shares many principles of the conservatives. Many reformist parties, among them reformist Islamic Iranian Participation Front, whose main candidate was Khatami, have supported his candidacy after the latter withdrew from the race. Many supporters of the reformist movement have however objected to Mousavi's candidacy on the grounds that he is not committed to the principles of the reformist parties. Although Mousavi stated that he was not running as a reformist, he indicated that he welcomed the support of different parties, both reformist and conservative. He started his campaign from