Iran's Zarif urges election turnout despite 'grievances'
The plea comes as many disillusioned Iranians have vowed to boycott the election.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reached out to all Iranians to participate in Friday's presidential election, which has been lamented as a one-sided race fixed by powerful hard-liners.
In a video message posted on Instagram, Zarif told Iranians that their vote would accelerate the lifting of Western sanctions, which have pushed the Iranian economy to the edge of collapse and triggered widespread public discontent and disillusionment.
Zarif said voting will put an end to the "economic war," a term Iranian officials recurrently employ in reference to those sanctions. The Iranian foreign minister acknowledged "shortcomings and mistakes" in the country's management and expressed his personal apology, but noted, "Breaking up with the ballot box is not the solution, nor will it alleviate the grievances."
The top Iranian diplomat did not endorse any of the seven candidates, most of them hard-liners. Leading those nominees is judicial chief Ibrahim Raisi, known for his anti-Western antagonism, whose anticipated landslide victory has been paved by the Guardian Council, a candidate-vetting body packed with like-minded ultraconservative clerics.
