(Tehran) The new Iranian president Ebrahim Raïssi prefers to invest in domestic politics to obtain concrete results, rather than on the nuclear issue which risks dragging on, experts say.
Iran is financially strangled by sanctions following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 from the Iranian international nuclear agreement concluded three years earlier in Vienna. The negotiations are at a standstill.
President Raïssi “travels the provinces, because he wants to give the image of a pragmatic senior official who is looking for solutions on the ground,” says Iran specialist Bernard Hourcade.
“His primary concern is to prevent any fire and he knows that, in a tense economic situation, the fire starts with local sparks which spread if we are not careful,” explains the author of “Geopolitics of Iran”.
“He must therefore be very attentive and go there to monitor the temperature” of the country, he said.
In an intervention Monday on television, Mr. Raïssi explained his way of working. “A week is seven days. We work six days at the national level and the seventh we visit the provinces, ”he said.
“Acting on the ground cannot be done behind a desk” added Mr. Raïssi.
Seven trips in two months
Upon his inauguration in August, the new president took the opposite view of his predecessor Hassan Rohani, largely involved in the nuclear agreement, entrusting this file to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
“He knows that an agreement on nuclear power may take time, because there is no unanimity among those responsible for the issue in Iran. He prefers to prove himself in domestic politics, ”assures a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He is a technocrat, who wants to give an image of seriousness and efficiency,” he adds.
On weekends, Mr. Raïssi travels the provinces of the country to “familiarize himself with the problems of the local population,” said this ultraconservative, who has spent the majority of his career in the judiciary.
“We want to create jobs, relaunch production and solve problems, especially those of the poorest,” he explained last week in Bouchehr (in the south of the country).
In a country that has experienced the highest death rate from COVID-19 in the region, Mr. Raïssi has also massively stepped up vaccination. Since August, the rate of the vaccinated population has increased from 3.8% to more than 20%.
Over the past two months, the Iranian president has made seven trips to the provinces, as many as the former populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (in power from 2005 to 2013), also very often on the move, assures an Iranian journalist under the on condition of anonymity.
It began with the western province of Khuzestan, in turmoil because of a water shortage, followed by the eastern one of Sistan-Baluchistan, which suffers from an infrastructure deficit.
Be popular
Convinced that an agreement on nuclear power, even partial, will be reached in the long term and that part of the sanctions will be lifted, President Raïssi does not skimp on the promises, explains to AFP a European economic expert.
Thursday, he went to Shiraz (south) to the site of a famous household appliance factory closed for 13 years. “If I don’t make it here, who else can try to revive it?” He asked.
“If the economy does not improve quickly, these people can turn against it,” warns Iranian expert Muhamamad Sahimi of the University of Southern California.
After the cabinet was formed in August, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had encouraged him to reach out to the people to “restore the confidence of the people”, the “greatest capital” available to a government. .
“Being popular has obligations, like going to listen to people,” he said at the end of September.
If the ultraconservative newspapers are laudatory with regard to the initiatives of President Raïssi, his trips are not unanimous.
“We see a president who does not need an armored vehicle to understand the situation”, greets the daily Kayhan.
On the other hand, the reformist newspaper Etemad is more critical. “These trips are not going to solve people’s problems […] Moreover, the solution is not in the hands of one person, not even those of the president, ”writes the newspaper.