TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s new president said Saturday that his countrymen elected him to change the country’s foreign policy and shift away from the bombastic style adopted under his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Hasan Rouhani said his government will adjust its tactics to reach out to world powers. But he said the Islamic Republic will retain its principles.

“We don’t have the right to use foreign policy to chant slogans or clap,” Rouhani said.

“Foreign policy is not where one can speak or take a position without paying attention,” he said during the inauguration of Iran’s new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “People in the June 14 elections declared that they want a new foreign policy,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Rouhani has pledged to follow a policy of moderation and ease tensions with the outside world. He has also vowed to improve an economy ravaged by international sanctions and mismanagement by empowering technocrats.

He won a landslide victory in June 14 presidential elections, defeating his conservative rivals. Rouhani took the oath of office on Aug. 4 and Iran’s parliament approved all but three of his proposed ministers Thursday.

The core of Rouhani’s team includes figures whose academic pedigrees run through places such as California, Washington, Paris and London. Rouhani himself studied in Scotland, while Zarif is a U.S.-educated veteran diplomat with a doctorate in international law and policy from the University of Denver.

Rouhani said he hopes Zarif’s expertise and years of experience in dealing with Americans as Iran’s top U.N. envoy will help his government understand the American way of thinking. Zarif worked with Rouhani back when the president was Iran’s top nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005.

“Reconsidering foreign policy doesn’t mean a change in principles because principles remain unchanged,” Rouhani said. “But change in the methods, performance and tactics, which are the demands of the people, must be carried out.”

It remains unclear how much Rouhani’s team can influence Iranian policies and foster potential outreach diplomacy, such as direct talks with the U.S. or possible breakthroughs in wider negotiations over Tehran’s suspect nuclear program.

Nuclear policy remains under the control of the country’s top clerics. The West accuses the nuclear program of pursuing weapons technology, while Iran says it is for peaceful purposes.

Rouhani said Iran suffered from rhetoric used under Ahmadinejad and his government will distance from his predecessor’s slogans.

Ahmadinejad used to call U.N. Security Council resolutions “worthless papers” and “annoying flies, like a used tissue.” He also used to call for U.S. leaders to be “buried” in response to American threats of military attack against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Rouhani appointed caretaker ministers to replace two of the three of his nominees who were rejected by parliament. Jafar Towfighi will be caretaker minister for science, research and technology and Reza Salehi Amiri will be caretaker minister of sports and youth.

Rouhani doesn’t need parliamentary approval for the temporary appointments, but after three months will need to submit new nominees for the permanent post for a vote of confidence.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election on Saturday with a resounding defeat of conservative hardliners, calling it a victory of moderation over extremism and pledging a new tone of respect in international affairs.

Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran’s tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria’s president in the civil war there – matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But the president runs the economy and wields broad influence in decision-making in other spheres. Rohani’s resounding mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
“This victory is a victory of wisdom, a victory of moderation, a victory of growth and awareness and a victory of commitment over extremism and ill-temper,” Rohani told state television, promising to work for all Iranians, including the hardline so-called “Principlists” whom he defeated at the poll.
“I warmly shake the hands of all moderates, reformists and Principlists,” he said.
The mid-ranking cleric seemed to strike a new tone in the way he talked about Iran’s relations with the rest of the world.
Rohani said there was a new chance “in the international arena” for “those who truly respect democracy and cooperation and free negotiation”.
Celebrating crowds sprang up near Rohani’s headquarters in downtown Tehran and across the city and country as his victory was confirmed.
“LONG LIVE REFORM!”
“Long live reform! Long live Rohani!” chanted the throngs, according to witnesses at the scene. “Ahmadi, bye bye!” they added in reference to Ahmadinejad, the witnesses said.
“Tehran has exploded with happiness. I have never seen so many people so happy in my life,” said Negin, a 29-year-old photographer.
Others flashed the victory sign and chanted slogans in favor of Mirhossein Mousavi, who reformist supporters believe was robbed of the 2009 election by what they say was vote rigging to return Ahmadinejad to office.
“Mousavi, Mousavi, I got back your vote!” and “Mousavi, Mousavi, congratulations on your victory!” the crowds shouted.
Another eyewitness named Mina told Reuters tearfully by phone: “I haven’t been this happy in four years. I feel that we finally managed to achieve a part of what we have been fighting for since the past elections. They finally respected our vote. This is a victory for reforms and all of us as reformists.”
Rohani will take up the presidency, the highest elected office in Iran’s hybrid clerical-republican system, in August.
Several people were killed and hundreds detained when security forces crushed protests after the 2009 election, and Mousavi and his fellow reformist candidate are still being held under house arrest. Authorities say the election was free and fair.
BRIDGE-BUILDER?
Though an establishment figure, Rohani was known for his nuanced, conciliatory approach when he was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.
He could act as a bridge-builder between hardliners around Khamenei who reject any accommodation with the West and reformers marginalized for the last four years who argue that the Islamic Republic needs to be more pragmatic in its relations with the world and modernize at home in order to survive.
Emphasizing political continuity, Khamenei congratulated both the people of Iran for the high turnout in the polls and Rohani for his electoral success.
“The true winner of yesterday’s election is the great nation of Iran that was able to take a firm step with God’s help,” Fars news agency quoted Khamenei as saying.
But Rohani’s wide margin of victory revealed a large reservoir of support for reform with many voters, undaunted by restrictions on candidate choice and campaign rallies, seizing the chance to rebuke the unelected elite over Iran’s economic miseries, international isolation and security crackdowns.
Rohani’s nearest rival was conservative Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a long way behind with less than 16 percent. Other hardline candidates close to Khamenei, including current nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, scored even lower.
Iran’s rial strengthened about 4 percent against the U.S. dollar on Saturday after partial vote tallies pointed to an easy Rohani victory, web sites tracking the currency said.
Washington said it stood ready to engage with Iran to reach a “diplomatic solution” over its nuclear program, which the West suspects is intended to produce nuclear weapons – something Iran denies.
“We respect the vote of the Iranian people and congratulate them for their participation in the political process, and their courage in making their voices heard,” the White House said in a statement.
“It is our hope that the Iranian government will heed the will of the Iranian people and make responsible choices that create a better future for all Iranians.”

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s reformist-backed presidential candidate surged to a wide lead in early vote counting Saturday, a top official said, suggesting a flurry of late support could have swayed a race that once appeared solidly in the hands of Tehran’s ruling clerics.

But the strong margin for former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhaniwas not yet enough to give him an outright victory and avoid a two-person runoff next Friday.

Rowhani had about 45.8 percent of the more than 1.8 million votes tallied, said Solat Mortazavi, head of the interior ministry’s election department, well ahead of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf with about 17.6 percent. Hardline nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was third with about 14.1 percent.

It was unclear when the final count would be known. Iran has more than 50 million eligible voters, and turnout in Friday’s election was believed to be high.

Many reform-minded Iranians who have faced years of crackdowns looked to Rowhani’s rising fortunes as a chance to claw back a bit of ground.

While Iran’s presidential elections offer a window into the political pecking orders and security grip inside the country — particularly since the chaos from a disputed outcome in 2009 — they lack the drama of truly high stakes as the country’s ruling clerics and their military guardians remain the ultimate powers.

Election officials began the ballot count after voters waited on line for hours in wilting heat at some polling stations in downtown Tehran and other cities, while others cast ballots across the vast country from desert outposts to Gulf seaports and nomad pastures. Voting was extended by five hours to meet demand, but also as possible political stagecraft to showcase the participation.

The apparent strong turnout — estimated at 75 percent by the hardline newspaper Kayhan — suggested liberals and others abandoned a planned boycott as the election was transformed into a showdown across the Islamic Republic’s political divide.

On one side were hard-liners looking to cement their control behind candidates such as Jalili, who says he is “100 percent” against detente with Iran’s foes, or Qalibaf.

Opposing them were reformists and others rallying behind the “purple wave” campaign of Rowhani, the lone relative moderate left in the race.

Mortazavi said Rowhani had more than 834,000 votes from the 1,819,984 counted so far. Qalibaf trailed with more than 320,000, and Jalili had more than 257,000. The other three candidates were further back.

But even if the last-moment surge around Rowhani brings him to the presidency, it would be more of a limited victory than a deep shake-up. Iran’s establishment — a tight alliance of the ruling clerics and the ultra-powerful Revolutionary Guard — still holds all the effective power and sets the agenda on all major decisions such as Iran’s nuclear program and its dealings with the West.

Security forces also are in firm control after waves of arrests and relentless pressures since the last presidential election in 2009, which unleashed massive protests over claims the outcome was rigged to keep the combative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power for a second and final term. He is barred from seeking a third consecutive run.

The greater comfort level by the theocracy and Revolutionary Guard sets a different tone this time. Opposition groups appear too intimidated and fragmented to revive street demonstrations, and even a win by Rowhani — the only cleric in the race — would not likely be perceived as a threat to the ruling structure.

Rowhani led the influential Supreme National Security Council and was given the highly sensitive nuclear envoy role in 2003, a year after Iran’s 20-year-old atomic program was revealed.

“Rowhani is not an outsider and any gains by him do not mean the system is weak or that there are serious cracks,” said Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Strayer University in Virginia. “The ruling system has made sure that no one on the ballot is going to shake things up.”

Yet a Rowhani victory would not be entirely without significance either. It would make room for more moderate voices in Iranian political dialogue and display their resilience. It also would bring onto the world stage an Iranian president who has publicly endorsed more outreach rather than bombast toward the West.

The last campaign events for Rowhani carried chants that had been bottled up for years.

Some supporters called for the release of political prisoners including opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, both candidates in 2009 and now under house arrest. “Long live reforms,” some cried at Rowhani’s last rally. The rally was awash in purple banners and scarves — the campaign’s signature hue in a nod to the single-color identity of Mousavi’s now-crushed Green Movement.

“My mother and I both voted for Rowhani,” said Saeed Joorabchi, a university student in geography, after casting ballots at a mosque in west Tehran.

In the Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas, local journalist Ali Reza Khorshidzadeh said many polling stations had significant lines and many voters appeared to back Rowhani.

Iran: In the end, Iran’s presidential election may be defined by who doesn’t vote.

As polls opened early Friday, arguments over whether to boycott the ballot still boiled over at coffee shops, kitchen tables and on social media among many liberal-leaning Iranians. The choice — once easy for many who turned their back in anger after years of crackdowns — has been suddenly complicated by an unexpected chance to perhaps wage a bit of payback against Iran’s rulers.

The rising fortunes of the lone relative moderate left in the race, former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, has brought something of a zig-or-zag dilemma for many Iranians who faced down security forces four years ago: Stay away from the polls in a silent protest or jump back into the mix in a system they claim has been disgraced by vote rigging.

Which way the scales tip could set the direction of the election and the fate for Rowhani, a cleric who is many degrees of mildness removed from being an opposition leader. But he is still the only fallback option for moderates in an election that once seemed preordained for a pro-establishment loyalist.

“There is a lot of interesting psychology going on. What is right? Which way to go?” said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. “This is what it means to be a reformist in Iran these days.”

It’s also partly a political stock-taking that ties together nearly all the significant themes of the election: the powers of the ruling clerics to limit the choices, the anger over years of pressures to muzzle dissent and the unwavering claims that the last election was stolen in favor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run for a third consecutive term.

Iran’s presidency is a big prize, but not a crown jewel. The president does not set major policies or have the powers to make important social or political openings. That rests with the ruling theocracy and its protectors, led by the immensely powerful Revolutionary Guard

But for liberal-leaning Iranians, upsetting the leadership’s apparent plans by electing Rowhani could open more room for reformist voices and mark a rare bit of table-turning after years of punishing reprisals for the 2009 protests, the worst domestic unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Rowhani raises a lot of interesting questions,” said Scott Lucas, an Iranian affairs expert at Britain’s Birmingham University. “Among them, of course, is whether he gets Iranians who have rejected the system to then validate the system by voting again.”

And there are many other factors at play.

Many Iranians say they are putting ideology aside and want someone who can stabilize the sanctions-battered economy — one of the roles that does fall within the presidential portfolio. This could boost candidates such as Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is seen as a fiscal steady hand.

Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said the center was for Iran’s space-related security but that Tehran would also share the acquired data with other countries, the official IRNA news agency reported. The report said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was present at the inauguration of the center located near the town of Delijan, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Tehran.

Iran frequently announces technological breakthroughs that cannot be independently verified. It has long pursued space ambitions aimed at putting its own satellite into orbit as well as a manned space flight.

“The base is aimed at securing the country’s space facilities and monitoring space objects especially satellites that pass overhead,” Vahidi was quoted as saying.

The country has nine command and control ground stations for its space program including one in Syria, the country’s main Arab regional ally. The rest are located mainly in the central and southern parts of the country.

Vahidi said the Delijan center used radar, electro-optic and radio tracking.

Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation, improve telecommunications and expand military surveillance in the region. The U.S. and its allies worry that the same technology could also be used to develop long-range missiles.

In one of its most recent high-profile space announcements, Iran said in February that it send a monkey into space.

Iran: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged presidential candidates on Tuesday not to make concessions to appease the West, an implied rebuke to several of the candidatesrunning in June 14 elections who said that they would focus on improving the Islamic Republic’s relations with other countries.

The comments by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, are a red line to candidates indicating how far they can go, and a reminder that the ruling clerics rather than the elected president determine all major policies.

“Some, following this incorrect analysis — that that we should make concession to the enemies to reduce their anger — have put their interests before the interests of the Iranian nation. This is wrong,” said Khamenei during a televised speech marking the anniversary of the June 3, 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. He said candidates “must promise” to put Iran’s interests before foreign interests.

Ali Akbar Velayati , a Khamenei foreign advisor now running for president, said Friday that Iran needs “reconciliation with the world” to solve problems including high unemployment and inflation.

Another candidate, centrist Hasan Rowhani, has also signaled that he would lessen rifts between Iranand the West over its disputed nuclear program that the West fears has a military dimension, a charge Iran denies.

Khamenei said that the “anger of enemies” stems from the Islamic Republic’s very existence.

He said the economy is Iran’s main problem, but suggested economic problems could be improved by reducing consumption and management. “If our nation can be powerful and reduce its consumption, if the next president can manage the economy, the enemy will be defenseless in its confrontation with the Iranian nation.”

Iran is under international and the Western economic sanctions that hit its vital crude exports and its access to its revenue abroad. This has caused price hikes as well as sharp devaluation of the country’s currency.

The country also is suffering over 30 percent inflation and 14 percent unemployment rates.

Khamenei said the “enemies of Iran” intend to make trouble during the elections by stirring unrest. A wave of protest followed Iran’s disputed 2009 election.

The Supreme Leader reiterated previous statements that he is not backing a particular candidate among the eight running for president. “The foreign media will soon begin to say that Khamenei prefers one of the candidates. This is wrong. I have no favorite candidate.”

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s helicopter had to make an emergency landing in the northeast after an unspecified “accident,” the presidency reported, adding that he was unhurt.

“The helicopter carrying Dr Ahmadinejad and a number of officials on Sunday had an accident, but the pilot managed to land the aircraft safely,” the website president.ir reported.

He had been en route to inaugurate a local project in a mountainous region of northeast Iran when the incident happened.

“With God’s help the president and the officials accompanying him were not hurt. After the landing the president inaugurated the project and returned to Tehran by car,” the website added.

It did not give any more details about what happened in the “accident.”

Ahmadinejad is coming to the end of his second term as president of the Islamic republic.

Eight approved candidates are standing for president in an election on June 14, and Ahmadinejad’s term in office ends on August 3.

Iran (AP) — Iran’s president has slammed “foreign presence” in the Persian Gulf, claiming it’s the source of insecurity in the region.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has “always guarded peace and security” in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

Ahmadinejad says that “foreign presence has been main reason of insecurity in the region” — an apparent reference to Western nations and the U.S. 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain.

Iran sees the large American-led naval presence as foreign military meddling in the Mideast.

Ahmadinejad’s remarks — typical rhetoric from the president — came ahead of a military parade in Tehran on Thursday as Iran marks National Army Day.

The epicentre of the huge quake was 86km (53 miles) from the city of Khash in Sistan Baluchistan province, near the border with Pakistan.

Tall buildings swayed in the Indian capital Delhi, while tremors were felt across the Gulf and wider Middle East.

At least 37 people were killed and 850 wounded in a 6.3 magnitude quake in south-west Iran on 10 April.

The quake struck south of the country’s only nuclear power station in Bushehr, which operators said was undamaged.

There are no reports yet of casualties or damage.

Mohammad Wazir, a correspondent for BBC Persian in Pakistan, says the quake was felt in the cities of Karachi and Quetta.

TEHRAN: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake killed at least 37 and injured hundreds more in a sparsely populated area in southern Iran on Tuesday, Iranian officials said, adding that it did not damage a nuclear plant in the region.

The report said the earthquake struck the town of Kaki some 96 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bushehr, a town on the Persian Gulf that is home of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, built with Russian help.

“No damage was done to Bushehr power plant,” Bushehr provincial governor Fereidoun Hasanvand told state TV. He said 37 people had died so far and 850 were injured, including 100 who were hospitalized.

The plant’s chief, Mahmoud Jafari, confirmed the site’s condition to semi-official Mehr news agency, saying that it is resistant to earthquakes of up to magnitude eight.

Water and electricity were cut to many residents, said Ebrahim Darvishi, governor of the worst-hit district Shonbeh.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog agency said on its website that it had been informed by Iran that there was no damage to the plant and no radioactive release and, based on its analysis of the earthquake, was not seeking additional information. The International Atomic Energy Agency statement indicated that it was satisfied there was little danger.