TEHRAN — Iran's six presidential candidates engaged in their final live debates on Monday and Tuesday, as the country's supreme leader urged apathetic citizens to disappoint enemies by voting in Friday's snap presidential election.
The Reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, was cornered by his firebrand hard-line rivals when they were all asked to present their foreign policy agenda in the debate aired live by multiple TV and radio channels across the state broadcaster.
Taking the center stage was the contentious, factional question surrounding the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which has been on life support since it was ditched by former US President Donald Trump in 2018, sending shock waves across Iran's sanctions-hit economy.
The hard-line candidates — Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Saeed Jalili and Alireza Zakani — took turns attacking former moderate President Hassan Rouhani for his handling of the accord and his overall pro-Western policies. They underlined their own approach of sanctions neutralization through prioritizing regional alliances over engagement with Western powers.
