Iran’s newly-inaugurated ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi vows that his government will endeavour to get US sanctions lifted but will not wait for foreign help to rescue the battered economy.
Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi was Tuesday inaugurated as president of Iran, a country whose hopes of shaking off a dire economic crisis hinge on reviving a nuclear deal with world powers.
“Following the people’s choice, I task the wise, indefatigable, experienced and popular Hojatoleslam Ebrahim Raisi as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote in a decree read out by his chief of staff.
From the outset, Raisi will have to tackle negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear deal from which the US unilaterally withdrew imposing sweeping sanctions.
Raisi, in his inauguration speech, said the new government would seek to lift “oppressive” US sanctions, but would “not tie the nation’s standard of living to the will of foreigners”.
In his response, Khamenei acknowledged Iran suffered from “many shortcomings and problems”, but quickly added: “The country’s capabilities are even more numerous.
Raisi won a presidential election in June in which more than half the electorate stayed away after many heavyweights were barred from standing.
Read the article in the Herald Sun (AFP).