Sunday Times 2
Rowhani officially takes office as Iran president
View(s):TEHRAN, Aug 3 (AFP) – Moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani assumed Iran’s presidency at a ceremony today after receiving a formal endorsement from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “There is a clear message in electing a competent individual with more than three decades of service to the (Islamic republic’s) establishment,” Khamenei said in a statement.
Hassan Rowhani is due to be inaugurated as Iran's new president (AFP)
“He hails from the clerical stronghold who has confronted the enemies,” the statement added.The 64-year-old cleric begins his term as the Islamic republic’s seventh president facing grave challenges abroad and at home over Iran’s ailing economy and isolation resulting from the controversial policies of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad’s eight years in office were also marked by showdowns with Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and economic suffering because of international sanctions and mismanagement.Rowhani’s remarks about Israel on Friday showed that Iran’s new president will also be no stranger to controversy on the international stage.
During annual rallies on Quds (Jerusalem) Day, he labelled Israel a “wound” on the Muslim world, sparking a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In our region, a wound has for many years been sitting on the body of the Islamic world in the shadow of occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the dear Quds,” Rowhani said in remarks broadcast on state television.But his comments were originally misquoted by official media that reported him as saying “the Zionist regime is a wound inflicted for years on the body of the Muslim world that must be cleansed”.
Netanyahu swiftly denounced Iran’s president-elect, based on his remarks as initially reported.”Even if the Iranians work to deny these comments, this is what the man thinks and reflects the regime’s plans,” he said.Rowhani on Friday also pledged allegiance to the Palestinian cause and rejection of Israel as a state, an unfaltering cornerstone of Iranian foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah.
However, during campaigning and also after his election, Rowhani also vowed to engage constructively with the international community.
The former nuclear negotiator also said there would be increased transparency in Iran’s atomic activities which the West suspects have a military motive, despite repeated denials.
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