Israel said Saturday the international community should be alarmed by hardliner Ebrahim Raisi's election as Iranian president because of his commitment to a "rapidly advancing military nuclear program".
Raisi's election "makes clear Iran's true malign intentions, and should prompt grave concern among the international community", foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat 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".
Israel fiercely opposes the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that offered its arch-foe Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.
It argues the deal, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew three years later, could enable the Islamic republic to develop nuclear arms.
Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.
Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric, is set to take over at a critical time as Iran seeks to salvage the tattered deal and free itself from punishing US sanctions.
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".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
"Illusion": Hamas Official Dismisses US Optimism Over Gaza Ceasefire Talks Israeli Forces Claim To Have Destroyed 50 Hamas Tunnels Since Last Month 17 Palestinians Killed In Israeli Strike On Gaza Amid Raging War Indian-Origin Family, On Way To Daughter's College, Killed In US Car Crash Woman Doctor Assaulted By Drunk Patient, His Relatives At Mumbai Hospital BJP Leader, 2 Doctors Summoned Over 'Fake News' On Kolkata Rape-Murder Should Kolkata Top Cop Be Interrogated? Trinamool Leaders Differ "They Were Men": Trump Again Slams Olympic Gold Medalists Amid Gender Row Questions That CBI Asked RG Kar Hospital Ex-Principal Over Kolkata Horror Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.