Tehran: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday endorsed Ebrahim Raisi as the new President of the Islamic republic. Khamenei gave his official approval to Raisi at a ceremony broadcast live on state television, reports Xinhua news agency.
Khamenei directed Raisi to quickly form a government that will work for the people, talk to them honestly and fight corruption.
“Yes, there are a lot of deficiencies and problems, but our capacities are more than the problems,” he said, asking the people to remain patient as the challenges can be resolved in time.
The 60-year-old signalled that he will continue talks to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers from which the US unilaterally withdrew three years ago, said a report from AlJazeera.
“We will certainly be after lifting cruel sanctions, but we will certainly not make the people’s livelihoods and the economy conditioned, and won’t tie it to the will of foreigners,” he said during his speech at the televised ceremony in the capital, Tehran, which was also attended by other top officials and military commanders.
As for foreign policy, Raisi has announced his priority is to boost cooperation and interaction with the world. Facing major domestic and international challenges, Raisi will assume his presidency after taking the oath of office in Parliament on Thursday.
Raisi told Iranians his administration has immediate plans to fix the major economic issues. He had previously promised to slash inflation, build four million homes in four years and create a million jobs per year.
In June, Raisi was elected by the Iranians as their eighth president since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 by promising to improve the economic conditions which have been seriously affected by US sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Raisi’s victory in the controversial June 18 presidential elections was also a central talking point during Tuesday’s ceremony.
According to official figures, turnout was 48.8 percent, the lowest in any presidential race since the 1979 revolution that birthed the theocratic establishment. Also for the first time since the revolution, the share of void votes was the second-largest after Raisi, who won by a landslide.
The election cycle was also marked by the wide disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates, several of whom protested against their disqualification but encouraged the people to vote nevertheless.
