Iran election
\nIsrael has said the international community should have grave concerns about the election of Iran\u2019s new president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi.
\nA spokesman for Israel\u2019s foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said Mr Raisi is Iran\u2019s most extremist president yet. He also warned the new leader will increase Iran\u2019s nuclear activities.
\nEbrahim Raisi was declared the winner of Iran\u2019s presidential election on Saturday, in a race that was widely seen as being designed to favour him.
\nMr Raisi, who will be inaugurated in August, is Iran\u2019s top judge and holds ultra-conservative views. He is under US sanctions and has been linked to past executions of political prisoners.
\nIn a statement following his victory, he promised to strengthen public trust in the government, and be a leader for the entire nation.
\n\u201cI will form a hard-working, revolutionary and anti-corruption government,\u201d state media quoted him as saying.
\nHowever in a critical Twitter thread, Israel\u2019s Lior Haiat said he is \u201can extremist figure, committed to Iran\u2019s rapidly advancing military nuclear program\u201d.
\nIran and Israel have been in a long-running \u201cshadow war\u201d, which has resulted in both countries taking part in tit-for-tat actions, but so far avoiding all-out conflict. Recently, however, the hostilities between the two have escalated again.
\nThe situation is complex, but one big source of tension is Iran\u2019s nuclear activities.
\nIran blames Israel for the murder of its top nuclear scientist last year and an attack on one of its uranium enrichment plants in April.
\nMeanwhile, Israel does not believe that Iran\u2019s nuclear programme is purely peaceful, and is convinced it is working towards building a nuclear weapon.
\nThe 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which saw harsh penalties lifted on Iran as long as it stopped some nuclear work, collapsed when former US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, and re-imposed the crippling economic sanctions. The Biden administration is now trying to work out a way to re-enter the deal.
\nIn response to the sanctions being tightened, Iran stepped up its nuclear activities, and is currently enriching uranium at its highest levels ever – although still short of what is needed to make nuclear-grade weapons.
\nCommenting on the election result, the US said it regretted Iranians were \u201cdenied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process\u201d.
\nVoter turnout was at a record low for this election, with less than 50% of registered voters going to the polls, compared to more than 70% in 2017. Many people shunned the election, believing that it had been engineered in favour of Mr Raisi, who is a staunch ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
\nAyatollah Khamenei has repeatedly called for the elimination of the state of Israel. In 2018, he described the country as a \u201ccancerous tumour\u201d that had to be removed from the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran election Israel has said the international community should have grave concerns about the election of Iran\u2019s new president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi. A spokesman for Israel\u2019s foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said Mr Raisi is Iran\u2019s most extremist president yet. He also warned the new leader will increase Iran\u2019s nuclear activities. Ebrahim Raisi was declared the winner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n