Iran’s new president vows to lift US sanctions
EBRAHIM Raisi was inaugurated yesterday as president of Iran, a country whose hopes of shaking off a dire economic crisis hinges 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,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote in a decree read out by his chief of staff.
Raisi replaces moderate president Hassan Rouhani, whose landmark achievement was the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers. From the outset, Raisi will have to tackle negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear deal from which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew imposing sweeping sanctions. Raisi, in his inauguration speech, said his government would seek to lift “oppressive” U.S. sanctions, but would “not tie the nation’s standard of living to the will of foreigners.”
The 60-year-old also faces the United States, Britain and Israel’s warnings to Iran over a deadly tanker attack last week for which Tehran denies responsibility. Raisi won a presidential election in June in which more than half the electorate stayed away after many political heavyweights were barred from standing.
Yesterday’s ceremony marked Raisi’s formal accession to office. He will then be sworn in before parliament on Thursday when he is to submit his proposed government line-up. Raisi’s presidency will consolidate power in the hands of conservatives following their 2020 parliamentary election victory, marked by the disqualification of thousands of reformist or moderate candidates. Last month, he called on parliament for “cooperation” to increase Iranians’ hope in the future.
The 2015 deal saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear capabilities in return for an easing of sanctions. But then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord three years later and ramped up sanctions again, prompting Tehran to pull back from most of its nuclear commitments. Trump’s successor Joe Biden has signaled his readiness to return to the deal and engaged in indirect negotiations with Iran alongside formal talks with the accord’s remaining parties – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
The U.S. sanctions have choked Iran and its vital oil exports, and the economy contracted by more than 6% in both 2018 and 2019.
In the winter of 2017-2018, and again in 2019, street protests sparked by the economic crisis rocked the country. And last month, demonstrators in oil-rich Khuzestan province, which has been hit by drought, took to the streets to vent their anger.