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Ebrahim Raisí takes office as President of Iran before Parliament in Tehran on Thursday.ATTA KENARE / AFP
The ultra-conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisí, former head of the Judiciary of Iran, has replaced the reformist Hasan Rohaní as president of the Islamic Republic on Thursday.
In a televised act from the Tehran Parliament, the new president promised to "defend the rights" of his country "against external sanctions and pressure," according to France Presse.
His inauguration, after receiving the political blessing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday, comes amid mounting tension with Israel.
The Israeli government has blamed Iran for the suicide drone attack on an oil tanker registered a week ago in the Gulf of Oman, in which two crew members were killed.
The accusation has been seconded by the United Kingdom, which will take it before the UN Security Council this Friday, and by the United States, which maintains its V Fleet deployed in the Persian Gulf.
On Tuesday there was also the temporary hijacking of a tanker at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz at the hands of an armed group.
Iran has denied any involvement in both actions.
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Negotiations to reactivate the nuclear pact exacerbate the power struggle in Iran
The ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisí wins the elections in Iran
With the coming to power of Raisí, 60, the conservatives take over all the plots of power. The moderate Rohaní has not fulfilled the promise to reactivate at the end of his mandate the nuclear agreement with the United States, from which President Donald Trump declined, and bequeaths that mission to his successor. Raisí was sanctioned by Washington in 2019 for his role in the so-called "death commission," a secret judicial committee that sentenced thousands of political prisoners to capital punishment in the late 1980s.
The reinstatement of the nuclear agreement, by which Iran pledged in 2015 with the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany to bring its nuclear program under control of the UN in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, is only one of the challenges facing the new president. The serious economic crisis derived from commercial isolation and the consequences of the pandemic have sowed discontent among a large part of the 85 million Iranians.
Raisí was elected in June with 62% of the vote, with a participation of less than 50% of the census and 14% of invalid votes, in a message of civil disobedience sent by the dissidents to the theocratic regime.
The new president has now reiterated his campaign promise "to improve people's livelihoods."
For this, it requires that the commercial punishment reimposed by the US in 2018 be withdrawn in order to be able to sell oil again and recover its foreign currency deposits.
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Ayatollah Khamenei is the one who always has the last word in the Islamic Republic, and he has already been in favor of reactivating the nuclear agreement. But the arrival of Raisí to power is accompanied by a hardening of Tehran's negotiating position, after having refused to extend the atomic pact talks to other issues, such as cutting support for militias operating in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. and the reduction of the missile program.
Tension has increased in the undeclared naval war between Iran and Israel, precisely on the eve of Raisí's inauguration.
The incidents around the Persian Gulf are seen in Israel as a deliberate escalation aimed at persuading the US to show more flexibility in renegotiating the nuclear deal.
Washington and London seem determined to give a joint diplomatic response backed by the international community, but the Israeli government declares itself ready to attack Iran on its own to put an end to the naval attacks.
Torpedo the 2015 pact reissue
Israel is taking advantage of the maritime crisis to try to torpedo a literal reissue of the pact reached in 2015. Under the presidency of the Republican Trump, the United States turned in its favor and departed from the agreement signed by Barack Obama. With another Democrat in the White House, the Israeli government seeks to influence the Joe Biden Administration in order to demand compensation from Tehran. In addition to postponing uranium enrichment operations to the maximum and preventing Iran from equipping itself with the atomic weapon, Israel demands strict international control over the medium and long-range missile program and the departure from Syria of the Guardians of the Iranian Revolution and the Lebanese Hezbollah militias, which back the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The tension with Iran and its allies has reached the very borders of Israel in recent hours. In the early hours of Thursday morning, combat aircraft bombed launching ramps in southern Lebanon, from where three rockets were fired on Wednesday, two of which landed on Israeli territory. The Army responded at first with three massive artillery volleys.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz attributed the firing of the projectiles to a Palestinian faction of the Islamic Jihad. "But these militias do not act without the consent of Hezbollah," which controls southern Lebanon, former General Gantz told the Hebrew press. “Iran represents a regional and international problem. And it can act against anyone, "he warned, referring to the attack on the oil tanker in Omani waters. In a briefing with diplomatic representatives of the 15 member countries of the UN Security Council, Gantz on Wednesday identified the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Said Ara Jani as the direct author of the attack with drones loaded with explosives against the oil tanker operated by a Israeli company.