Iran's hardline president to take helm of country this week

Ebrahim Raisi faces an uphill battle as he assumes office amid fifth wave of Covid-19

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President-elect Ebrahim Raisi and judiciary head Gholamhossein Ejeii at a ceremony to certify the election results, on August 3.

Ebrahim Raisi will be inaugurated and begin his term as Iran’s president on Thursday, August 5.

The veteran regime loyalist is taking office at a pivotal time for the country. Iran is battling its third wave of Covid-19 infections, recording 37,000 cases daily, the most since the pandemic began.

With less than 4 per cent of Iranians vaccinated and a lockdown imminent, Mr Raisi will have to work quickly to get things under control.

He will also be taking over amid Iran's continuing economic crisis and sensitive negotiations with western countries over a new nuclear deal, which have faltered in recent weeks.

Although promising to keep negotiations going, Mr Raisi is likely to take a harsher stance than his predecessor Hassan Rouhani. Already this week, an Iranian official said an expected prisoner swap with the US was no longer on the table. Mr Raisi has long been known to take pride in his lack of contact with the West, instead favouring to look to the East for potential allies.

The hardline shift will mark a new chapter for Iran after eight years of a reformist presidency. Mr Raisi's election helped unify the hardline factions in all branches of the government.

Mr Raisi himself has been a fixture of Iranian politics for decades. He is known in Iran and globally for his role in the execution of thousands of prisoners in the 1980s, a fact that is likely to further complicate Tehran's role on the global stage.

In 2009, Mr Raisi defended the executions of more than a dozen people who took part in the Green Revolution protests that followed former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Mr Raisi ran for president in 2017, collecting 16 million votes but losing to Mr Rouhani in a landslide win for the moderate candidate.

In 2019, Mr Raisi was named head of Iran’s judiciary by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as deputy chief of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical group that selects the supreme leader.

His two years as chief justice have been marked by human rights abuses and increased repression of any kind of dissent in Iran. He has overseen the execution of a number of Iranians who had participated in political protest, including a champion wrestler.

In November 2019, the administration of US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Mr Raisi and other members of the supreme leader’s inner circle for “advancing the regime’s domestic and foreign oppression”, which included the execution of minors.

Mr Raisi’s inauguration is likely to be a quieter affair than that of his predecessor.

Very few foreign dignitaries and leaders have said they will attend, although the EU is expected to send Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora, despite an outcry from a number of countries.