TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday called on all Iranian voters to participate in the upcoming presidential election while he advised the candidates to refrain from what he called playing down the achievements of his government.
Rouhani touched on criticism leveled at his administration in televised electoral debates, saying it is a national duty to defend “great achievements” gained under the maximum pressure and an economic war on the country.
“The denial of the administration’s clear achievements in the fight against economic sanctions and the coronavirus is the strategy of the opponents of Iran,” he said.
Rouhani touched on his administration’s battle with the cruel sanctions, saying a great deal of effort has been made by the Central Bank of Iran to ease the import of agricultural inputs.
He also pointed to efforts made to develop homegrown vaccines for the coronavirus, saying realistic plans and coordination among various sectors have allowed for the production of vaccines inside the country.
On Saturday, the presidential candidates again clashed during their third and final televised debate – this time, more openly, especially over the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and United States sanctions.
The seven men leveraged the slightly improved “debate” format to speak more directly and at length about the corruption and misguided management of the economy.
After most candidates criticized the previous two debates that incorporated no moderation and saw them not answering the same questions, national television began the final event by posing one question – on people’s problems – to all participants.
Several candidates discussed the need for an overhaul in the management style of the government in addition to fighting corruption and supporting marginalized Iranians.
But most notably, much more time was spent on the nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the harsh sanctions that the U.S. has imposed since 2018 when former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew his country from the landmark accord.
Reformist candidate Abdolnaser Hemmati, who led the central bank until earlier this month when he was dismissed for running for president, railed against those who oppose ratifying remaining legislation to complete Iran’s accession to the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Leading candidate Ebrahim Raisi said he will remain committed to the JCPOA like any other state agreement.
However, he said the effective implementation of the accord requires a “strong” government, adding that the outgoing administration was not as such.
On the FATF, he said he does not support it because it does not guarantee “our nation’s interests”.
Saeed Jalili, a former top nuclear negotiator, and Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), both said their potential governments would “make the enemy regret” sanctioning Iran through boosting local production and “nullifying” sanctions.
“The JCPOA is a bad check,” Jalili said, while Rezaei said Iran must “flip the table, or at least slap the table” when faced with the U.S. reneging on the accord and trying to leverage sanctions to make demands of Iran.