Ebrahim Raisi Becomes President, Israeli PM: Iran Still Can't Have Nuclear Weapons

JAKARTA - Israel is concerned about the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran's President, with the new government saying it still disagrees with Tehran's possession of nuclear weapons.

In addition, Israel under the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who was sworn in last week also said that world powers had better not continue negotiations on the 2015 Nuclear Agreement with Iran.

In a televised cabinet meeting for the first time since taking office, Bennett described Raisi's rise more to the "support" of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than the result of a democratic vote.

"Raisi's election, in my opinion, is the last chance for world powers to rise before returning to the nuclear agreement, and understanding who they are doing business with," said Naftali Bennett.

"Regimes of brutal executioners should not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction, Israel 's position will not change in this regard, " said PM Bennett.

Raisi has never publicly discussed the allegations surrounding his role, related to allegations of the unlawful execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 raised by Washington and human rights groups.

Bennett, a nationalist at the top of a cross-partisan coalition, contrasts the opposition views of his conservative predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which limits projects with potential bomb-making that Israel considers too lax.

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump agreed with Israel and walked out of the deal. Current US President Joe Biden wants Uncle Sam's Country back to the deal.

To note, Ebrahim Raisi was elected President of Iran won the vote on Friday last week, with 17.8 million votes out of a total of 28.6 million votes cast, ahead of his two competitors, Mohssen Rezaei and Abdolnaser Hemmati.

Controversy surrounds his election, with only 48 percent of Israel's population voting in this election. In addition, Raisi was also sanctioned by the US when he was appointed as a Supreme Court Justice in 2019.

The sanctions were imposed in line with Amnesty International's report calling it human rights abuses, ordering the death penalty for more than 5,000 political prisoners in 1988.