TEHRAN: Iran’s president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian said he looks forward to improved relations with European nations, even though he accused them of reneging on commitments to mitigate the impact of US sanctions. Pezeshkian won a runoff election against ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili last week.

The 69-year-old has called for “constructive relations” with Western countries to “get Iran out of its isolation”, and favors reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers. The United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018, reimposing sanctions, which led Iran to gradually reduce its commitment to the terms of the deal. The agreement aimed to curb nuclear activity, which Tehran maintains is for peaceful purposes.

In an article published late Friday in the English-language Tehran Times newspaper, Pezeshkian said that after the US pullout from the 2015 deal, European nations committed to trying to salvage it and mitigate the impact of US sanctions.

“European countries have reneged on all these commitments,” Pezeshkian wrote. “Despite these missteps, I look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries to set our relations on the right path, based on principles of mutual respect and equal footing.”

He said the two sides could explore “numerous areas of cooperation” if the Europeans “set aside self-arrogated moral supremacy coupled with manufactured crises that have plagued our relations for so long.” European Union spokeswoman Nabila Massrali had earlier congratulated Pezeshkian on his election, saying the 27-member bloc was “ready to engage with the new government in line with EU policy of critical engagement”. The death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash necessitated the July 6 election, which was not due until 2025.

In the runoff, Pezeshkian secured about 54 percent of the vote against Jalili’s roughly 44 percent, with a turnout of just under half of Iran’s 61 million electorate. Pezeshkian is a heart surgeon whose only previous government experience was as health minister about two decades ago. He is considered a “reformist” in Iran, and was the only candidate from that camp allowed to stand in the election, for which all contenders were approved by Iran’s Guardian Council.

US must face ‘reality’

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all major policy issues in the country. Under the hard-won 2015 deal, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of the crippling international sanctions. After the US withdrawal and reimposition of sanctions, Iran gradually began reneging on its own commitments to the agreement.

“The United States also needs to recognize the reality and understand, once and for all, that Iran does not—and will not—respond to pressure,” said Pezeshkian, who is to be sworn in on July 30. The parties to the 2015 deal with Iran saw it as the best way to stop the Islamic republic from building a nuclear bomb—a goal Tehran has always denied. European Union members France and Germany were also party to the deal, along with Britain, China and Russia. The European nations tried to salvage it, but Iran accused them of perceived inaction.

Under the late president Raisi, Iran sought improved relations with China and Russia while mending ties with Arab neighbors, chiefly Saudi Arabia, to avert deeper isolation. In his article, Pezeshkian described Russia as a “valued strategic ally” and said he looked forward “to collaborating more extensively” with China. He said Iran was keen to cooperate with its Arab neighbors and Turkey to deepen economic and trade relations and “tackle common challenges”.- AFP