Iran's supreme leader formally confirmed Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian as the country's president on Sunday after winning elections this month by promising a pragmatic foreign policy and easing repression at home.
Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who will be sworn in on Tuesday, takes office at a time when tensions are escalating in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran on Sunday warned its arch-enemy Israel of a new adventure in Lebanon after Israeli authorities blamed Hezbollah for a rocket attack on Saturday that hit a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 people, and promised a strong response. Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack.
In a ceremony broadcast live on state television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian his endorsement, and in a subsequent speech, the Supreme Leader reiterated Iran's longstanding anti-Israel stance. “The Zionist regime (Israel) is not a state, it is a criminal gang, a murder bank, and a terrorist gang,” Khamenei said in his speech, praising the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for its resistance to Israel in Gaza.
