Iran’s Rouhani says missile tests will continue ‘if necessary’

Rafsanjani’s vote total surpassed all the votes received by hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi in his failed presidential bid against Rouhani.

However, the scale of Mr Rouhani’s victory has given the pro-reform camp a strong mandate. A court has banned quoting or naming Khatami on air.

Iran and the USA back opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen, but they are both fighting the jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq.

A senior United Arab Emirates official said on Sunday the re-election of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani could be a chance for Tehran to reset “its troubled relations” with its neighbours.

Rouhani has been a successful president, at both the domestic and worldwide levels, so far. His defeat leaves the conservatives without an obvious flag bearer.

When asked how he forsaw his country’s relations with the US, Rouhani said he hoped the Trump administration would “settle down” and try to understand his nation better.

Iran’s theocratic dictatorship has constructed a façade of democracy to mask the fact that real power always has been wielded by unelected clerical leaders. They had thrown their support behind Raisi to safeguard their interests.

He added, “If we are proud of the elections and the people’s participation, it is because of the path Imam Khomeini (RA) showed us”.

Some youngsters wore wristbands in violet, the color of Rouhani’s campaign. His success at the polls likely carried reformist candidates to victory in other municipal elections as well.

“We won. We’ve done what we should have for our country”.

Rouhani said that Iran’s missiles were “for our defense and for peace, they are not offensive”, adding that he would not need permission from the U.S. to conduct such tests.

However, President Rouhani will have a significant role in the selection of a new supreme leader once the ayatollah dies. “People voted for reformists to make their lives happier”.

As President Rouhina stated in his inaugural address, the Iranian people wish “to live in peace and friendship with the rest of the world”. He’ll serve another four years in the post. His first term was marked by an emergent global outreach, a move supported by then-US President Barack Obama. The 2015 nuclear deal was of course the key issue in the election.

Upon his arrival to Israel on Monday from Iran’s rival Saudi Arabia, Trump vowed that the Islamic Republic would never obtain nuclear weapons.

Trump has criticised the nuclear deal, which was opposed by every Republican in Congress and several Democrats.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 22, 2017.

Both countries have made bellicose statements, with Iran’s defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, telling the Arabic-speaking Al-Manar channel: “We warn them against doing anything ignorant, but if they do something ignorant, we will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca and Medina”.