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full screen Iran’s newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian during a meeting the day after the presidential election earlier this summer. Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP/TT
Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian says he looks forward to strengthening relations with Europe.
“Iran’s relationship with Europe has had its ups and downs,” the president writes in the English-language newspaper Tehran Times, and at the same time directs a boot at Europe for helping to maintain sanctions against Iran.
“Despite these slippages, I look forward to a constructive dialogue with European countries, so that our relationship can take the right path,” continues Pezeshkian.
The incoming president is described as reform-friendly and somewhat less hard-line than his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter accident earlier this year.