Iran: Ahmadinejad granted license to start university

New York Times: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, whose tumultuous two-term tenure is in its final few days, will be moving to academia. The government’s Islamic Republic News Agency announced Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad had been granted a license to start an international university in Tehran.

The New York Times

By RICK GLADSTONE

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, whose tumultuous two-term tenure is in its final few days, will be moving to academia. The government’s Islamic Republic News Agency announced Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad had been granted a license to start an international university in Tehran.

It was the first official confirmation of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s postpresidential plans, which had been the subject of speculation for some time. The news agency said the charter of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s university, which apparently has not been named yet, must still be approved by two government ministries.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who could not run for a third term, is to relinquish the presidency on Sunday to the cleric Hassan Rouhani. Mr. Rouhani has promised a less confrontational style than Mr. Ahmadinejad, a conservative whose eight years in office were marked by fewer personal freedoms, more economic problems, fraud accusations and violent protests over his re-election in 2009, and Iran’s increased isolation over its disputed nuclear energy program.