Israel said Saturday the international community should be alarmed by hardliner Ebrahim Raisi's election as Iranian president.
"Iran’s new president, known as the Butcher of Tehran, is an extremist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iranians. He is committed to the regime's nuclear ambitions and to its campaign of global terror," Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Twitter.
Raisi's election "makes clear Iran's true malign intentions, and should prompt grave concern among the international community", foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat also wrote on Twitter.
Iran has "elected its most extremist president to date", he said following Friday's vote. Raisi is "committed to Iran’s rapidly advancing military nuclear program".
Raisi, a hardline judge who is under US sanctions for human rights abuses, secured victory as expected on Saturday in Iran's presidential election after a contest marked by voter apathy over economic hardships and political restrictions.
"More than ever, Iran’s nuclear program must be halted immediately, rolled back entirely and stopped indefinitely,” said the Israeli foreign ministry.
"Iran’s ballistic missile program must be dismantled and its global terror campaign vigorously countered by a broad international coalition."
Israel fiercely opposes the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
It argues the deal, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew three years later, could enable Tehran to develop nuclear arms.
Israel's newly sworn-in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called efforts to revive the deal a "mistake that will give one of the darkest regimes legitimacy".
