Abbas congratulates Rowhani on victory, hopes to strengthen Iran-PA ties

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cabled Iran’s president-elect Hasan Rowhani Sunday to congratulate him on his victory at the polls.

According to official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas wished Rowhani luck and success in his duties, adding that he looked forward to working together with him towards strengthening ties and pursuing interests common to Iran and the PA.

Abbas joined a long list of world leaders to congratulate Rowhani on his surprising first round victory in the state’s national elections held Friday, expressing hope that they could work with the new leadership in Tehran on international issues.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said her office would engage with the new leadership to push for a diplomatic way to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

“I remain firmly committed to working with the new Iranian leadership towards a swift diplomatic solution of the nuclear issue,” she said.

Ashton has headed up talks between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear program, which is widely believed to be military in nature.

The talks have failed to produce any significant breakthroughs in several years of efforts, and Iran insists the program is peaceful.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would continue to work with Tehran “on issues of importance to the international community and the welfare of the Iranian people.”

“He will continue encouraging Iran to play a constructive role in regional and international affairs,” a press release from his office said.

Rowhani, seen as the least extreme of the presidential candidates, was announced the winner of Iran’s presidential election Saturday, garnering 50.7 percent of the votes from the day before.

Though the former nuclear negotiator has expressed relatively moderate views, including that the country’s nuclear program should take a back seat to Iran’s economic welfare, watchers say he will likely be hamstrung in making any wide-ranging reforms by Tehran’s deeply ensconced clerical regime.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Rowhani now has the opportunity to keep his promises to the Iranian people “to restore and expand freedoms for all Iranians.”

Earlier, the White House congratulated Iranian voters for “their courage in making their voices heard” despite clampdowns that included severe restrictions on the Internet, a key tool of Iran’s opposition. Washington urged Tehran’s leadership to “heed the will of the Iranian people and make responsible choices,” while noting that the US remained open for direct dialogue with Iran.

Israel, meanwhile took a more skeptical approach to the ostensible reformist’s elections win.

“Let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishful thinking and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Speaking to the Cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu noted that Iran’s spiritual leader Ali Khamenei had disqualified many more moderate candidates, and that Rowhani has made hostile comments about Israel. He also said that Khamenei still oversees nuclear policy.

“The more the pressure on Iran increases, the greater is the chance of stopping the Iranian nuclear program, which remains the greatest threat to world peace,” he said. “Iran will be judged by its actions. If it continues to insist on developing its nuclear program, the answer needs to be very clear — stopping the nuclear program by any means.”

President Shimon Peres took a softer line than Netanyahu, saying the results amounted to a massive show of disapproval with Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.

“More than half of Iranians, in their own way, in my judgment, protested against an impossible leadership,” Peres, a Nobel peace laureate, told The Associated Press in an interview. “It is clearly a voice of the people and a voice that says, ‘We don’t agree with this group of leaders.'”

While saying it is impossible to predict the future, he noted that the vote was a “new beginning” that could pave the way for a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff.

Syrian President Bashar Assad also congratulated Hasan Rowhani on his victory and called on his new counterpart to upgrade ties between the already close countries.

Iran has been among Assad’s most steadfast supporters during Syria’s two-year civil war, sending Damascus arms, money, and fighters.

Assad said first on the agenda for the two leaders would be “confronting the plots of hegemony and aggression against the national sovereignty in our region in a way that reflects positively on the peoples of both friendly countries,” according to a report carried by Syria’s state-run SANA news agency.