Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will leave politics after his second term ends in 2013, according to a report from a German publication on Saturday.
“Two terms in office is enough,” Ahmadinejad told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, according to Al Arabiya. Iran’s constitution says a president can only run for two terms.
Ahmadinejad said he does not intend to do as Russian leader Vladimir Putin did and return to seek reelection for president in 2017, having already fulfilled the constitutional term limit.
The Iranian leader said he would not be heavily involved with politics and would “return to scientific work” at a university. Before entering politics, Ahmadinejad was an engineer by trade.
“Maybe I'll get involved politically at the university, but I’m not going to found any political party or grouping,” he said, according to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, also citing the Frankfurter.
Ahmadinejad has been Iran’s president since 2005 and was mayor of Tehran before that.
