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Iran: Raisi elected with blood on his hands
The recent inauguration of President Ebrahim Raisi raises questions about his past in the ‘Death Committee’ — as well the direction of Iran’s future foreign policy, writes JANE GREEN

A DEGREE of tension between the elected President of Iran and the country’s Supreme Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been built into the system ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic 40 years ago.

That tension has focused around the degree of emphasis in Iranian foreign policy upon engagement with the US and to a lesser extent the European Union.

The Western press have tended to simplify this tension as one between “conservative hardliners” and “reformists” within the Iranian political system, seeing hope in the presidencies of Khatami (1997-2005) and Rouhani (2013-2021), while despairing at the two terms of Ahmadinejad (2005-2013).

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