Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially endorses relative moderate as president

Masoud Pezeshkian will take office as Middle East tensions escalate over the Israel-Gaza war and Iran -backed Hezbollah in Lebanon

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Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (middle) hands his seal of approval to newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian. Photo: dpa

Published: 5:47pm, 28 Jul 2024

Iran’s supreme leader formally endorsed Masoud Pezeshkian as the country’s president on Sunday, after he won an election this month by pledging a pragmatic foreign policy and easing repression at home.

Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who will be sworn in on Tuesday, is taking office at a time of escalating Middle East tensions over the Israel-Gaza war and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran warned its arch foe Israel on Sunday against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon, after Israeli authorities blamed Hezbollah for a rocket attack on Saturday that hit a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killing 12 people, and vowed to inflict a heavy response.

Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the strike.

In a ceremony broadcast live on state television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his approval for Pezeshkian, and in a speech afterwards, the supreme leader reiterated Iran’s long-standing anti-Israel stance.

“The Zionist regime (Israel) is not a state, it is a criminal gang, a bank of killers, and a terrorist band,” Khamenei said in his speech, while praising the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for its resistance against Israel in Gaza.