TEHRAN, Aug 5- Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani was inaugurated as the new president of Iran at a ceremony held at the Parliament building here Sunday, stressing that engagement with the Islamic republic should be based on “the language of respect, not sanctions”.
In his speech at the ceremony, he also promised that the fight against corruption and equality would top the agenda of his administration and acknowledged that Iranians wanted to live better and enjoy the benefits of a stable life.
Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who flew into the Iranian capital from Kuala Lumpur early this morning, joined government leaders from over 50 countries to witness the event which took place following the June 14 presidential poll.
On the back of campaigning that touted “moderation and wisdom”, the 64-year-old Rohani clinched the election with more than 18 million votes, or 50.7 per cent of the total votes that was estimated at more than 36 million.
Rohani, Irans’s chief nuclear negotiator between 2003 and 2005, succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose eight-year term as president had been marked by antagonistic policies, including over Iran’s much-maligned nuclear programme.
Muhyiddin was among those who met the newly-minted president to congratulate him on his appointment on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony.
“I also brought the message of goodwill from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and the King (Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah) to the new president,” he told Bernama.
The deputy prime minister expressed the hope that relations between Kuala Lumpur and Tehran would further be strengthened under the new presidency as he noted that the two countries had long-standing ties in terms of trade and investment.
“But we believe that there are still a lot of prospects (in this area) and my hope is that a more open and pro-business policies mentioned in his (Rohani’s) speech will augur well for trade and investment between Malaysia and Iran,” he said.
He was also asked on the need to convene the next Malaysia-Iran Joint Commission Meeting (JCM), last held in Putrajaya in 2008, to further boost bilateral ties.
“I think we’ll ask Wisma Putra (Malaysian Foreign Ministry) to find a suitable date when there can a meeting, now that a new president has come in,” he said.
“And we do hope that business will not only be as usual but (turn into) something more positive, more fruitful, more beneficial for both Malaysia and Iran,” he added.
Malaysia established its embassy in Tehran in 1970 while Iran opened its mission in Kuala Lumpur in 1981.
Turning to the various sanctions imposed on Iran which had affected its economy as well as creating difficulties for its people, Muhyiddin said: “They (sanctions) have created a lot of hardships not only to Iran but also many of the countries that have relations with Iran.
In this connection, he said there was a need for a new approach on how Iran dealt with the rest of the world and “what the world can do with Iran in the sense that it must be based on mutual respect and recognition of each other’s role and responsibility as nations”.
– BERNAMA
