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Al-monitor – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who promised more interaction with the world and more social freedoms, won re-election May 19 with 57% of the vote. His conservative rival, Ebrahim Raisi, who received approximately 16 million votes to Rouhani’s 23 million, conceded defeat but vowed to remain a loyal opposition, as did large swaths of conservative media in the country. …

RFL/RE – President Hassan Rohani has been declared the outright winner with nearly all the ballots counted from Iran’s May 19 presidential election, a seemingly emphatic endorsement of the incumbent’s efforts to reengage internationally and seek modest reforms within Iran’s clerically dominated society. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Rohani won 57 percent of the vote versus 38.5 percent for …

VOA – Iran has returned President Hassan Rouhani to office. State television Saturday declared Rouhani the winner of the presidential vote, easily beating out his closest opponent, hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi. With nearly all the votes counted, Rouhani won well over half of the votes among the four candidates. Massive voter turnout Friday prompted election authorities to extend voting hours …

RFL/RE – Iranians are voting in a four-man presidential race that could reinvigorate efforts for an economic and diplomatic thaw with the West or draw the curtain on a four-year interlude in hard-line domination at all levels of government. By Golnaz Esfandiari https://www.rferl.org/fba22956-2fda-453b-ac98-9727d6daf5c7 The incumbent, relative moderate Hassan Rohani, and a conservative former prosecutor, Ebrahim Raisi, are widely regarded as the …

RFL/RE – U.S. forces have for the first time bombed a convoy of Syrian government and Iranian-backed militia forces after Russia was unable to keep them from entering an area where U.S. allies have been preparing to battle the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, the Pentagon says. The Syrian-allied forces were threatening U.S. troops and allied rebel forces operating near …