News-Middle East-Iran: Iranian state and military officials attend a ceremony in Tehran on August 3, 2021, during which Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei officially endorsed Ebrahim Raeisi as Iran's 8th president.

Ebrahim Raeisi is now officially the 8th president of the Islamic Republic of Iran after his mandate was endorsed by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei at a ceremony in Tehran, weeks after the ex-Judiciary chief won the country’s 13th presidential election by a landslide.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s decree, endorsing the presidential mandate of Raeisi, was read out at the event by head of the leader's office. The ceremony took place at Imam Khomeini Hosseiniyeh in Tehran in full compliance with COVID safety protocols and was attended by the country’s senior state and military officials.

In the decree, the Leader called on the new president to work toward activating the country’s capabilities and paving the way for a leap forward in all sectors, placing an especial emphasis on economy.

“Today, our dear country is thirsty for valuable service and is ready to make a leap in all areas. The country needs competent, jihadi, intelligent, courageous management that can organize the manifest and hidden capabilities of the nation — in particular those of the youth, which are much greater in scope than the problems,” read the decree.

A management is needed that can bring these capabilities into the field for constructive work and endeavor, eliminate the obstacles in the way of production, seriously pursue policies for strengthening the national currency, and empower the middle and lower classes of society that are shouldering the burden of economic problems, it added.