TEHRAN -- President-elect Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday an era of “friendship, cooperation and empathy” has begun for all political groups to work toward resolving people’s problems.
He made the remarks after holding a “very good” meeting with his six former rivals in the June 18 presidential race which marked a series of libelous accusations by at least one candidate against the incumbent judiciary chief.
“We had a very good meeting with the presidential candidates, and we hope that such empathetic attitudes will lead to resolving the problems and undoing the knots in people’s lives,” Raisi said.
The president-elect explained that his former rivals expressed their views and proposals on the priorities that they assumed his administration should follow up on during the one month left until his swearing-in ceremony.
Along with Raisi, Amir-Hussein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, Alireza Zakani, Naser Hemmati, Saeed Jalili and Mohsen Rezaei were the other candidates approved by the oversight Constitutional Council to run for president. Jalili and Zakani dropped out of the race in favor of Raisi, while Mehr-Alizadeh withdrew his bid effectively in favor of Hemmati.
Raisi won the election in a landslide, garnering over 18 million votes. Rezaei, who finished second, secured 3.4 million.
Raisi said during his Wednesday meeting, different solutions were explored for resolving the country’s problems, some of which had already been raised in election debates.
“All the friends are concerned about the country, the Revolution, resolving problems, and undoing the knots in people’s lives, which is very important,” he added.
In remarks on Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei praised the six candidates who lost in the election for their decorum and warm congratulatory messages to the president-elect.
The real winners of the election, the Leader said, are the Iranian people and all those who helped bring excitement to the polls.
“Therefore, the candidates who didn’t secure enough votes are among the winners as well, and on the contrary, the losers of the election are those who put all their efforts to drive the people away from the ballot box, but the people, with their presence, rejected them and dashed their hopes,” he added.
Ayatollah Khamenei drew a comparison between the Iranian candidates’ cultured demeanor with the scandalous villainy that followed the 2020 presidential election in the U.S.
He thanked God for the blessing and called on the country’s officials to keep up such spirit.
“One must speak with courtesy and observance of ethical and religious dimensions, without insulting and slandering, rather than picking up the offensive methods of the Americans and [former U.S. President Donald] Trump,” he added.