Poll win seen aiding Iran goals
Incoming leader Raisi expected to focus on economic revival, experts say
Ebrahim Raisi’s victory in the Iranian presidential election on Saturday presents an opportunity for the country’s economic recovery, experts say.
Raisi’s rise to the presidency comes as negotiations with major powers to revive a nuclear deal enter a critical phase in Vienna, they said.
Asif Shuja, an Iran expert and senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, said that with Raisi as president, Iran is likely to continue its focus on development and peace policies.
Raisi, one of four final candidates in the election, garnered almost 18 million votes of about 28 million ballots, or more than 60 percent. Though voter turnout, at 48.8 percent, was affected by the pandemic, the Iranian Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Raisi was named Iran’s judiciary chief by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2019.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the three other candidates congratulated him on his victory at the weekend.
“Starting on Aug 4, Raisi will be the president of all of us, and everyone will fully support him and his legitimate government,” Rouhani said in a joint news briefing with Raisi.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations to Raisi. Putin expressed hope that relations between the two countries will progress toward constructive cooperation in different areas, at bilateral and international levels.
The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Syria, along with the leaders of Pakistan, Lebanon and Turkey, were among those who have extended their congratulations to Raisi.
During the election campaign, Raisi promised enhanced cooperation with Iran’s neighbors and friends.
Raisi, after taking office in August, is expected to deliver on a campaign promise to improve the economic condition of the people, who have suffered under United States sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his campaign, he presented himself as a candidate opposed to administrative inefficiency and corruption, and one who would seek to work with other countries.
The talks between Iran and six world powers on the US’ return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have entered a new phase in Vienna as they continue this week. In 2018, the US ditched the pact.
Boosting ties
For Norafidah Ismail, a senior lecturer and Middle East expert at the School of International Studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia, Iran was always going to continue with a 25-year strategic agreement that it signed with China in March. The pact is aimed at boosting ties and fostering a regional partnership.
Sujata Ashwarya, an associate professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, said the agreement with China gives Iran a stronger negotiating position in the nuclear talks.
Jawaid Iqbal, a political science professor and chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said that given “China’s global outreach” and “the already strong relations between China and Iran”, Raisi’s election win “will only solidify this alliance”.
Raisi’s stand against US sanctions that also target him “will push Iran closer to China”, which unlike the US, “respects the internal sovereignty of each nation”.
His election “is a signal of defiance against the West”, Iqbal said.
“It symbolizes the counterproductive effects of USA’s sanctions regime which has resulted in the Iranian citizenry’s disillusionment with a reformist position.”