Ebrahim Raïssi is sworn in before Parliament
The protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn in as the country’s new president during a ceremony in parliament on Thursday.
The former judiciary chief known for his distrust of the West takes the reins at a tense time. Iran’s indirect talks with the US to salvage Tehran’s landmark 2015 nuclear deal have stalled, as Washington maintains crippling sanctions on the country and regional hostilities simmer.
“The sanctions must be lifted,” Raisi said during his half-hour inauguration speech. “We will support any diplomatic plan that supports this goal.”
Raisi, who won a landslide victory in an election that saw the lowest voter turnout in the nation’s history, faces a mountain of problems.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the endorsement ceremony for Raisi on Tuesday advised him to “empower the country’s poor people and improve the national currency” during his presidency.
Amid ongoing sanctions, Iran is grappling with runaway inflation, diminishing revenues, rolling blackouts and water shortages that have sparked scattered protests. Barred from selling its oil abroad, Iran has seen its economy crumble and its currency crash, hitting ordinary citizens hardest.
The decision of former President Donald Trump to withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal in 2018 has led Tehran, over time, to abandon every limitation on nuclear enrichment. The country now enriches a small amount of uranium up to 63%, a short step from weapons-grade levels, compared to 3.67% under the deal. It also spins far-more advanced centrifuges and more of them than allowed under the accord, worrying nuclear nonproliferation experts, though Tehran insists its program is peaceful.
