The reformist-backed moderate Hassan Rowhani will be Iran's next president after he scored an upset first-ballot victory over hardline rivals.
Mr Rowhani avoided a run-off by securing just over 50 per cent of more than 36 million votes cast in Friday's election.
Tehran's mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative candidate who had been running far behind in second place, conceded defeat.
Jubilant supporters wearing purple, Mr Rowhani's campaign colour, chanted "Amadi bye bye" outside his campaign headquarters last night. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will leave office on August 3.
Mr Rowhani's surprise victory, described by one analyst as "a shift of historic proportions in Iran", will be viewed with some relief in western and Arab Gulf capitals.
A former chief nuclear negotiator, he has vowed to mend ties with the international community and is open to talks with the United States.
In the UAE, the President, Sheikh Khalifa, sent a message of congratulation to Mr Rowhani. "We look forward to working with you for the good of the region and the peoples of the UAE and Iran," Sheikh Khalifa said.
Mr Rowhani's election win is a blow to the hardliners who have dominated Iranian politics for the past eight years, and confidently expected to win when the short campaign began last month.
However, they split their vote by fielding four fractious and ambitious candidates, while reformists united behind Mr Rowhani.
The opposition had initially been left reeling after a major pro-reform hopeful, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founding father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, was barred from running.
But Mr Rafsanjani and Iran's popular reformist leader, Mohammad Khatami, another former president, rallied behind Mr Rowhani while the hardliners failed to unite behind a single candidate.
Mr Rowhani's victory proved that Iran's reformist movement, crushed and marginalised after it challenged Mr Ahmadinejad's "stolen" re-election in 2009, remained a potent if latent force that has now chosen its moment to resurface.
Mr Rowhani's triumph suggested "a shift of historic proportions in Iran", said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institute in Washington. He is "an ideal candidate to spearhead a new initiative to wrest Iran from its debilitating battle with the international community over the nuclear issue".
Mr Rowhani, 65, has argued that a less confrontational foreign policy would allow Iran to advance its cherished nuclear programme while easing western concerns and allowing for sanctions to be rolled back.
His nearest rival, the slick, conservative mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was in second place with only 15.6 per cent of the vote. His campsign slogan was: "I built Tehran, now let's build Iran."
Iran's unyielding chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, the most hardline of all six candidates, who many believe was the real favourite of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lagged behind in third place with 11.38 per cent.
The dour Mr Jalili had pledged to use his experience in deadlocked nuclear talks with six world powers, including the United States, to pursue the same policy of uncompromising resistance to western demands if elected.
That defiant message clearly had little appeal to voters struggling to make ends meet under choking western sanctions.
Putting a brave face on an obvious setback, Ayatollah Khamenei said a "vote for any of these candidates is a vote for the Islamic republic and a vote for confidence in the system".
While the large turnout was mostly the result of disillusioned reformists belatedly deciding to vote, Iran's Kayhan daily, which is close to Ayatollah Khamenei, gave it a positive spin. The long queues at Friday's polls were the result of the supreme leader's calls for a "political epic" which had "stunned" the world and underlined the system's popular legitimacy.
That the vote passed peacefully - unlike in 2009 - will also be a consolation for Iran's septuagenarian supreme leader.
On domestic policy, Mr Rowhani, 65, has called for a civil-rights charter, the release of political prisoners and greater media freedoms. Appealing to the huge youth vote, he has also vowed to reduce unemployment and to back sex equality. All those calls resonated with the public.
"Though hardliners remain in control of key aspects of Iran's political system, the centrists and reformists have proven that even when the cards are stacked against them, they can still prevail due to their support among the population," said Trita Parsi, who heads the Iranian National American Council, an advocacy group.
Mr Rowhani was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator a decade ago when his country temporarily suspended uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure in negotiations with European powers. But the West stood by its demand that the entire programme be ended and the deal collapsed when Mr Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005.
Iran went from having two dozen test centrifuges at that time to nearly 17,000 this year, according to a report in May by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In choosing a colour to symbolise his campaign, in his case purple, Mr Rowhani echoed the signature green of the reformist movement that was battered - but clearly not beaten - four years ago.
Britain's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who dealt with Mr Rowhani during nuclear negotiations a decade ago, called him a "very experienced diplomat and politician", and said the result was "remarkable and welcome".
But some experts cautioned that not too much should be made of a Rowhani victory. "He is not an outsider and any gains made by him do not mean that the system is weak or that there are serious cracks," Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Strayer University in Virginia, said before the final results were announced.
"The ruling system has made sure that no one on the ballot is going to shake things up."
mtheodoulou@thenational.ae
Company%20Profile
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'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20WATCH%20SERIES%209
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The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
Women:
1. Judith Korir(KEN) 2:22:30
2. Eunice Chumba(BHR) 2:26:01
3. Immaculate Chemutai(UGA) 2:28:30
4. Abebech Bekele(ETH) 2:29:43
5. Aleksandra Morozova(RUS) 2:33:01
More on animal trafficking
Read more from Aya Iskandarani
if you go
The flights
Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.
The trek
Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
More from UAE Human Development Report:
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
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Tips for newlyweds to better manage finances
All couples are unique and have to create a financial blueprint that is most suitable for their relationship, says Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at Century Financial. He offers his top five tips for couples to better manage their finances.
Discuss your assets and debts: When married, it’s important to understand each other’s personal financial situation. It’s necessary to know upfront what each party brings to the table, as debts and assets affect spending habits and joint loan qualifications. Discussing all aspects of their finances as a couple prevents anyone from being blindsided later.
Decide on the financial/saving goals: Spouses should independently list their top goals and share their lists with one another to shape a joint plan. Writing down clear goals will help them determine how much to save each month, how much to put aside for short-term goals, and how they will reach their long-term financial goals.
Set a budget: A budget can keep the couple be mindful of their income and expenses. With a monthly budget, couples will know exactly how much they can spend in a category each month, how much they have to work with and what spending areas need to be evaluated.
Decide who manages what: When it comes to handling finances, it’s a good idea to decide who manages what. For example, one person might take on the day-to-day bills, while the other tackles long-term investments and retirement plans.
Money date nights: Talking about money should be a healthy, ongoing conversation and couples should not wait for something to go wrong. They should set time aside every month to talk about future financial decisions and see the progress they’ve made together towards accomplishing their goals.
