President Joe Biden has expressed willingness to return to the deal but talks have so far stalled. President Raisi is following in the steps of the ultraconservative Ayatollah Khamenei who held the same position from to US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday called for Iran to return to nuclear negotiations "soon," while adding that this "process cannot go on indefinitely.
At home, Raisi is seen as a close ally of Ayatollah Khamenei who, in his role as supreme leader, has the final say over every key policy. However, Iran's relations with the West have soured over the past months. The US, UK and Israel blame Iran for a series of attacks in waters off Iran's coast, including a drone attack last week that left two people dead. Raisi will also have to contend with the widespread problem of water and power shortages that have triggered large-scale protests.
Dissidents fear that Raisi's ascension signifies the return of harsher repression in comparison to the more moderate administration under former President Rouhani. With Raisi now officially sworn in, Iran's conservative hardliners control all three branches of government — the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. Against the backdrop of growing protests over water shortages, Iran's new hardline president takes office on Thursday. For ordinary Iranians, a life in fear and repression will continue, writes Azadeh Pourzand.
When Mr Raisi announced his candidacy for the presidential election, he declared that he had "come as an independent to the stage to make changes in the executive management of the country and to fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination". The election was subsequently overshadowed when the hard-line Guardian Council disqualified several prominent moderate and reformist candidates.
Dissidents and some reformists urged voters to boycott the poll, complaining that the process had been engineered to ensure Mr Raisi faced no serious competition. Little is known about Mr Raisi's private life except that his wife, Jamileh, teaches at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, and that they have two adult daughters. Iran country profile. Image source, EPA. Iran's presidential election: Four ways it matters.
Image source, Anadolu Agency. Image source, Getty Images. Iran became an Islamic Republic after the revolution, with Ayatollah Khomeini as supreme leader. Image source, AFP. Iran has also blamed US sanctions for an acute shortage of medicines.
Alongside the economic crisis, Iran is battling the coronavirus pandemic. It is the worst-hit country in the region and has recorded its highest number of cases for the past three days running. Iran has also been rocked by a wave of street protests in the south-west, triggered in part by severe water shortages. Mr Raisi's election came amid a record low turnout, with many Iranians either boycotting the polls or not voting out of apathy or disillusionment.
The year-old is close to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has been touted as a possible successor. A former judiciary chief, Mr Raisi has been heavily criticised over his human rights record. Campaign groups have accused him of involvement in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in In those visits, he would often announce he had brought a big factory back from the brink of bankruptcy, portraying himself as a champion of hard-working Iranians and boosting local businesses under US sanctions.
Raisi carried that theme into his campaign, in which he made limited promises as it was evident none of the other candidates could mount a serious challenge to his presidency amid a bad economic situation, low turnout and wide disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates.
During his time at the judiciary, messaging app Signal was banned earlier this year after a surge in popularity, as was the voice chat app Clubhouse when it became massively popular in the run-up to the elections.
All major social media and messaging apps are blocked in Iran, with the exception of Instagram and WhatsApp. Even as the June 24 deadline of a temporary agreement with the International Atomic Energy Organization to keep monitoring activities in Iran in place approaches, negotiators have said the sixth round will not be the final round.
But there are hopes the agreement could be revived before Raisi assumes office. Meanwhile, the million-strong population of Iran is suffering from rampant inflation and high unemployment while the government is running a considerable budget deficit and faces difficulties in handling what has become the deadliest COVID pandemic of the Middle East.
Raisi has promised to tackle inflation, create at least one million jobs per year, build new housing and dedicate special loans to first-time homebuyers who get married, in addition to ushering in a new era of financial transparency and fighting corruption. Hamed Mousavi, a political science professor at Tehran University, said the narrative among conservatives has been that mismanagement by the Rouhani government led to the current situation.
One important point is who will he appoint for the nuclear negations.
0コメント