Moderate Cleric wins Iranian Presidential Elections

{{Iranians celebrated into Sunday after moderate Hassan Rohani was elected president in a popular repudiation of conservative hardliners, and he pledged a new tone of respect in Tehran’s international affairs after years of increasing antagonism.}}

Rohani, a Shi’ite cleric and former chief nuclear negotiator with Western powers, received a resounding mandate for change from Iranians weary of years of economic decline under U.N. and Western sanctions and security clampdowns on dissent.

His victory goes some way to repairing the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, punctured four years ago when an election marred by fraud allegations led to mass unrest, and may give leverage for reformist voices muzzled since then to re-emerge.

But the hopeful reaction abroad was tempered by skepticism that Rohani could overcome the mistrust and alienation prevailing between Tehran and much of the world, and arch-enemy Israel warned against any complacency on Iran’s disputed quest for nuclear power.

“The international community must not give in to wishful thinking or temptation and loosen the pressure on Iran for it to stop its nuclear program,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

He noted that it was Iran’s theocratic supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and not the president who set nuclear policy. Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, and the West fear Iran is enriching uranium with the aim of developing nuclear arms, an accusation Tehran denies.

{agencies}