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Raisi said in a televised address to the country that his presidential mission would ease US sanctions on Iran.
“We will seek to lift the tyrannical sanctions imposed by America,” he said Russia Today, Tuesday (3/8/2021).
Iran’s new leader also vowed to raise living standards, which have taken a hit from years of sanctions, insisting that his government will not tie the nation’s living standards to the will of foreigners.
The ultraconservative president has the backing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Raisi will be sworn in as president before parliament on Thursday. Negotiating a nuclear deal with the US that sees fewer sanctions on Iran will be one of its main challenges.
Tehran and Washington have been holding indirect talks since April to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear pact, which US president Donald Trump unilaterally revoked in 2018.
Also read: Blinken: Nuclear talks with Iran can’t go on forever
Raisi also took office amid tensions with the US and UK, as both countries accused Tehran of being behind the attack on an Israeli tanker off the coast of Oman last week.
Also read: Enemy heats up, Iran threatens to counter US, UK and Israel
The former chief justice has drawn criticism from human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, on allegations of human rights violations and crackdowns on Iranian dissidents and protesters in the country, since the 1980s.
Raisi won Iran’s presidential election in June after gaining nearly 18 million votes, about 62% of the vote. However, Iran recorded the lowest turnout, with under half of the turnout.
Also read: Branded as a mass executioner, this is the answer of the President-elect of Iran Ebrahim Raisi
(ian)
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