Ahmadinejad: I will retire from politics in 2013

JPost - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to retire from politics after his second term ends in 2013, AFP quoted him as saying on Saturday in an interview with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, scheduled to be published on Sunday.

"Eight years is enough," Ahmadinejad reportedly told the German paper. Iran's Constitution prohibits a president to serve for more than two consecutive terms, but Ahmadinejad also ruled out the possibility that he would let someone serve one term after him and then return for a third term four years later, as Russian President Vladimir Putin recently did.

Ahmadinejad said that he would likely return to academia. "Maybe I'll involve myself in politics at the university but I will not form a political party or group," he said.

Relations between Ahmadinejad and parliament have become increasingly strained in recent years, particularly over budget matters. Parliament, which has the power to impeach the president, accused him of economic mismanagement and making illegal appointments.

In March, he became the first president in the Islamic Republic's history to be summoned to the assembly for questioning.

Ahmadinejad served as Tehran's mayor before being elected president in 2005. He was reelected in 2009 in an election that was widely suspected of being fraudulent. The allegedly rigged election was followed by eight months of street protests which the Iranian government violently quelled.

Ahmadinejad was an engineer and a former Revolutionary Guard officer prior to being elected Teheran's mayor in 2003.

Reuters contributed to this report.