Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh (Persian: میرحسین موسوی خامنه) served as the last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, before the position was abolished in the 1989 constitutional review.

In the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution, Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, moved to the United States.

His wife would later explain in an interview that her husband did not run in the 1997 election because of discouraging messages from "higher officials", possibly referring to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, or the president at the time, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

[4] He began his campaign at the center of Iranian politics but gradually shifted towards the reformist camp by declaring his support for reform.

[5] The BBC reported that Mousavi "called for greater personal freedoms in Iran and criticized the ban on private television channels", but "refused to back down from the country's disputed nuclear program", stating it was "for peaceful purposes".