“I endorse their [Iranian people’s] vote for the wise, honest, people-oriented, learned Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, and I hereby appoint him as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said a decree from Khamenei which was read out the chairman of his office during the endorsement ceremony.
The Iranian supreme leader called on the new president to prioritize the country’s economic issues as well as maintaining and boosting relations with countries that have helped Tehran during difficult situations.
Pezeshkian thanked Khamenei for his endorsement and vowed that his administration will aim to serve the people as much as it can and will “take no path but the path of justice and fairness.”
Pezeshkian, 69, emerged victorious from the runoff presidential election earlier this month with over 53 percent of the votes, besting his ultraconservative rival Saeed Jalili. The election went to a run-off after none of the candidates gained an absolute majority in the first round.
Delegates from 70 countries are set to attend the reformist politician’s inauguration on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media.
Khamenei said on Sunday that the presidential elections were carried out “peacefully and calmly,” and refereed to the polls as “one of the honors of the Iranian nation and a testament to the existence of a stable Islamic system.”
The turnout for the runoff was 49.8 percent, a jump from the 39.9 percent of voters who cast a ballot in the first round, which was the country’s lowest recorded turnout since the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979.
The vote was originally scheduled for 2025, but it was brought forward after former president Ebarhim Raisi died in May in a helicopter crash alongside several companions including late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
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