Remains arch-enemy

New president sticks to anti-Israel course

Massoud Pezeshkian succeeds Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash.(Bild: AFP or licensors)

Despite his rather moderate rhetoric by Iranian standards, the newly elected President Massoud Pezeshkian intends to stick to his country's anti-Israel stance.

In a letter to the Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, he stated with regard to Israel, according to the Isna news agency: "Iran's support for the resistance front against the illegitimate Zionist regime will continue with vigor."

Iran's "axis of resistance"
Iran is the most important supporter of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Shia militia fights against Israel politically, but also with violence. It is part of Iran's "axis of resistance", which was formed by anti-Western and anti-Israeli forces in the Arab world as a reaction to the "axis of evil" postulated by former US President George W. Bush. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush described those countries that supported terrorist groups and allegedly sought weapons of mass destruction.

How much influence Pezeshkian, who is expected to be sworn in at the beginning of August, will have on foreign policy, for example, depends largely on religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in the state.