Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi is to be inaugurated on August 3 as the new president of Iran, replacing relative moderate President Hassan Rohani, whose landmark achievement was the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
The inauguration ceremony is to be held at 10:30 a.m. local time at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s offices in central Tehran, according to state media.
The 60-year-old officially begins his four-year term after his election is endorsed by the supreme leader.
Raisi will be sworn in before parliament on August 4 and is to submit his proposed government list.
Among the items on his agenda will be nuclear talks aimed at reviving the deal from which the United States withdrew unilaterally in 2018.
Raisi said after his election victory that he backs discussions to revive the deal, which lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for commitments to limit and monitor its nuclear program.
Many of those sanctions were reimposed after the United States withdrew from the deal, further hurting Iran’s economy. Tackling the country’s economic woes is expected to be the new president’s top challenge.
Raisi also faces an immediate crisis as the United States, Israel, and Britain have blamed Tehran for an attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman last week. Tehran denies responsibility.
A former judiciary chief, Raisi has been criticized by the West for his human rights record and has also been under U.S. sanctions in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners as well as over his tenure at the judiciary.
Raisi’s presidency will consolidate power in the hands of conservatives following their 2020 legislative election victory, which followed the disqualification of thousands of reformist or moderate candidates.
On July 27, he called on parliament for “cooperation” to increase Iranians’ hope in the future.
“I am very hopeful for the country’s future and confident that it is possible to overcome difficulties and limitations,” he said in a statement issued by his office.
