27 May, 2017
Rouhani, a cleric whose administration struck the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, decisively won a second term in Friday's election.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is in a stronger position after his re-election to push through plans for wooing foreign investors the country needs to boost oil production, according to analysts at Cornerstone Global Associates and SVB Energy.
White House officials said after Trump's slate of meetings in Saudi Arabia Sunday that they were surprised at the level of professed desire among Arab Gulf states to partner with Israel in countering Iran's aggressions. The White House did not respond to questions Wednesday about whether he might squeeze in a news conference on the final legs of the trip, his meetings with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European leaders in Brussels and the Group of 7 summit in Sicily. Rouhani said that Iranians are "waiting for this government to become stable intellectually" and that "hopefully, things will settle down.so we could pass more accurate judgments".
As he hopscotches through the Middle East, President Donald Trump is urging Israel and its Arab neighbors to unite around a "common cause": their deep distrust of Iran.
In a jibe at the multibillion-dollar arms deals signed between Mr Trump and the Saudi government at the weekend, he said: "You can't solve terrorism just by giving your people's money to a superpower".
Rouhani's defeated rival, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Khamenei, said in his first comments after the election that the nearly 16 million voters who supported him must not be ignored.
Schreck is a regional news director for The Associated Press, overseeing coverage of Iran and six Gulf Arab countries. By all accounts, alongside Raisi, who won over 15 million votes, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei doesn't support Rouhani's vision either. In the bilateral sphere, South Africa and Iran share a long historical relationship, with Iran having stood with and supported the struggle for liberation in South Africa.
He also expressed his hope that Iran puts an end to its ballistic missile testing and "restores the rights of Iranians to freedom of speech, to freedom of organization, so Iranians can live the life they deserve".
On Monday, Rouhani, however, said that Iran will continue to test its missiles anytime if there is a "technical need", and it will not seek the permission of any other country to do so. "We still do not know what the new United States government plans and wants", he said.
Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:"This election reminds us how little has changed in the Islamic Republic of Iran".
An Iranian journalist who had spoken to Raisi supporters after the election said they were furious at the way the president had spoken about their candidate and themselves.
In this picture taken on Sunday, May 14, 2017, supporters of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the May 19 presidential election attend his campaign rally, in front of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in the city of Isfahan, Iran.
He leaned heavily on concerns over Iran's destabilizing activities in the region during his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Tehran's long-time foe.
He added that it was Iran's allies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq that had been leading the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group and other militants.
It is a "transactional deal" in which the Arab states would help Washington revive the peace process in exchange for a much tougher USA policy against Iran, he said.
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi contributed.
