President Hassan Rouhani apologized to Iranians Tuesday over massive power outages during a heatwave that have drawn widespread criticism and triggered street protests.

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Officials blamed the blackouts on surging demand for power, along with low rainfall cutting hydroelectric output and illegal cryptocurrency mining farms accessing subsidized electricity.

"I apologize to our dear people who have faced problems and suffering in the past few days and I urge them to cooperate [by curbing power use]. People complain about power outages and they are right," Rouhani said in remarks carried by state TV.

"The Energy Ministry is not at fault... but the minister should come and explain to the people what the problem is and we have to find a solution."

Angry residents gathered in several cities to protest against the outages, which often did not follow blackout schedules announced by the state-run electricity companies, according to Iranian news outlets and postings on social media.

Protests turned political is some areas, with people chanting "Death to the dictator" and "Death to [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei" and other slogans during blackouts, according to videos posted on social media.

Reuters could not independently verify the videos' authenticity.

Protesters said the frequent power outages had caused many problems, including water cuts in apartments, spoilage of meat and poultry and other items in refrigerators, and damage to household appliances, according to the Iranian Students News Agency.

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President Hassan Rouhani is set to end his term in office after eight years in which the ayatollah regime faced some of the greatest challenges it has ever known. As Iranians head to the polls to decide who will be their next president, let us take a look back at Rouhani's legacy.

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Known for his ability to negotiate deals with Western states, Rouhani was seen as a moderate and pragmatic reformist when he was elected Iran's president in 2013. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the other religious figures that hold the real power behind the scenes saw him as someone they could rely on to represent the values of the regime to millions of supporters of the reformist camp, including liberals who hoped for greater political and religious freedom. Following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two terms as president, Rouhani's candidacy gave many in Iran hope.

With the public's support, Rouhani focused his efforts on negotiating a nuclear deal with US President Barak Obama's administration that would inject billions of dollars into Iran while also implementing reforms aimed at kick-starting the country's economy. With the help of Iran's magnetic Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif, Rouhani's administration succeeded in reaching a deal with the world powers in two years. The accord was expected to allow Iran to further integrate into the international community. In Tehran, the masses took to the streets to celebrate Rouhani's election victory.

Yet the optimism that characterized Rouhani's first years in office began to fade in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected US president. By 2018, Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the nuclear accord, alongside Iran's increasing involvement in proxy wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya, made the regime's previous diplomatic achievements something of a distant memory at a time when the country was facing increasing international isolation.

The tsunami of sanctions Washington imposed on Iran sent its economy into a tailspin. Economic reforms necessary to free up the market, which suffered from over-regulation and a lack of competition, were pushed off as the regime increased its suffocating economic oversight. Basic items such as meat, fruit, and cleaning materials either disappeared from the market or were sold at exorbitant prices. Public anger was quick to follow.

The public takes to the streets

In December 2019, protests over the cost of living erupted in the Arab-majority city of Ahvaz in the country's south. What began as peaceful demonstrations turned violent when members of the Revolutionary Guards' bloodthirsty Basij militia tasked with overseeing public security in the state used live fire on protesters. The protests quickly spread to strongholds of various ethnic groups who felt excluded by the regime.

While Rouhani's office tried to prevent the violent suppression of the protests, the president was unable to quell the public anger. The Kurds, the Azeris, and the Balochs rioted and set hundreds of government buildings on fire. Soon enough, the demonstrations reached Tehran. There, young educated Iranians who had hoped for a brighter economic and political future began to join in the demonstrations. The regime's violent response left more than 200 protesters dead, 7,000 arrested, and unprecedented destruction. Attacking police headquarters, government-owned banks, and welfare offices, the protesters made their feelings toward the government clear.

The violent suppression of the protests made clear to proponents of democracy and reform that they had no part to play in the regime's institutionalized system. At the same time, the US exit from the nuclear accord and the assassination of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimaini in 2020 brought many Iranians over to the conservative camp.

More than anything, Rouhani's helplessness in the face of increasing interference by Iran's supreme leader and Rouhani's frustration with Khamenei's increasingly hawkish policy led many in the country to view the Iranian president as a figurehead of sorts whose powers as head of the executive branch were frequently expropriated.

Above all else, eight years of Rouhani have left the reformist camp that brought him to power in tatters. Large portions of the country's population are expected to boycott the presidential elections, as they did in the parliamentary elections of 2019. With the conservative camp leading the regime and no counterbalance to be found, large protests and maybe even an uprising are only a matter of time.

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Iran began voting Friday in a presidential election tipped in the favor of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fueling public apathy and sparking calls for a boycott in the Islamic Republic.

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State-linked opinion polling and analysts put hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, appointed by Khamenei to the position in 2019, as the dominant front-runner in a field of just four candidates. Former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati is running as the race's moderate candidate but has not inspired the same support as outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, who is term-limited from seeking office again.

If elected, Raisi would be the first serving Iranian president sanctioned by the US government before even entering office over his involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988 and the suppression of unrest in 2009, as well as his time as the head of Iran's internationally criticized judiciary – one of the world's top executioners.

It also would firmly put hardliners in control across the Iranian government as negotiations in Vienna continue over trying to save Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers as it enriches uranium to the closest point yet to weapons-grade levels.

The mid-ranking cleric says he backs Iran's talks with six major powers to revive the nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Raisi, who shares Khamenei's suspicion of detente with the West, says only a powerful government can implement any revival of the pact.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time for the vote, which has seen widespread public apathy after a panel under Khamenei barred hundreds of candidates, including reformists and those aligned with Rouhani. Khamenei cast the ceremonial vote from Tehran, where he urged the public to take part.

"Through the participation of the people the country and the Islamic governing system will win great points in the international arena, but the ones who benefit first are the people themselves," Khamenei said. "Go ahead, choose, and vote."

There are more than 59 million eligible voters in Iran, a nation home to over 80 million people. However, the state-linked Iranian Student Polling Agency has estimated a turnout of just 42%, which would be the lowest since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Fears of a low turnout have some warning Iran may be turning away from being an Islamic Republic – a government with elected civilian leadership overseen by a supreme leader from its Shiite clergy – to a country more tightly governed by its supreme leader. As supreme leader, Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state and oversees its defense and atomic program.

Under pressure over rising inflation and joblessness, the clerical leadership needs a high vote count to boost its legitimacy, damaged after a series of protests against poverty and political restrictions across Iran since 2017.

Raisi has crucial backing from Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful institution which over the years has opposed reformist initiatives, overseen the suppression of protests, and used proxy forces to assert Iran's regional influence.

"This is not acceptable," said former President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who sought to change its theocracy from the inside during his eight years in office. "How would this conform to being a republic or Islamic?"

For his part, Khamenei warned of "foreign plots" seeking to depress turnout in a speech Wednesday. A flyer handed out Wednesday on the streets of Tehran by hardliners followed in that thought, bearing the image of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.

"If we do not vote: Sanctions will be heavier, the US and Israel will be encouraged to attack Iran," the leaflet warned. "Iran will be under the shadow of a Syrian-style civil war and the ground will be ready for the assassination of scientists and important figures."

State television also aired footage of a polling station set up by Soleimani's grave in the city of Kerman. Poll workers also wore gloves and masks due to the coronavirus pandemic, with some wiping down ballot boxes with disinfectants.

Yet the disqualification of candidates seemed aimed at preventing anyone other than Raisi from winning the election, as Khatami did in 1997 by surprisingly beating a hardliner favored by Khamenei. That in addition to public anger with Rouhani, whose signature 2015 nuclear deal collapsed after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in 2018. Iran's already ailing economy has suffered since, with double-digit inflation and mass unemployment.

The vote "is set to be the least competitive election in the Islamic Republic's history," wrote Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at risk consultancy firm Verisk Maplecroft. "The election is heavily stacked in favor of candidates from the theocratic and hard-line end of Iran's political spectrum; there will be little need for the more overt forms of election fraud that characterized the turbulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009."

The decision to limit participation comes as whoever wins likely will serve two four-year terms as nearly every Iranian president has since the revolution. That means they may be at the helm at what could be one of the most crucial moments for the country in decades — the death of the 82-year-old Khamenei.

Already, speculation has mounted that Raisi may be a contender for the position, as well as Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, who is believed to have close ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday denounced Israel as "the enemy" of the Middle East in comments leading up to World Al Quds Day, which Iran inaugurated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protest the existence of the Jewish state.

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"The Zionists are the enemies of the region and of the security of the Palestinian people. They are the enemies of the nations of the region and the tormentors of the atrocities in history which have displaced millions of people from their homes," said Rouhani during a cabinet meeting.

"The Zionists hold grudges against the Iranian nation… and have always tried to strike this nation," he added, apparently forgetting that Israel and Iran were regional allies prior to 1979.

Rouhani also claimed Israel is failing in "its two great attempts" to oppose the return of the United States to the 2015 nuclear agreement, and undermine Tehran's ties with neighboring states.

He also touched on talks to revive the nuclear deal, predicting the United States will soon lift sanctions.

"Today our people are witnessing the fruit of their patience and resistance in the Vienna talks and, in my opinion, as head of government, the sanctions have been broken and they will soon be lifted if we are all united," he concluded.

Also Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that "Israel's security bubble has burst."

"Israel is suffering from a serious problem of decay … it will soon collapse from the inside. In recent months we have exposed their immense internal weaknesses. It has been exposed that their international shipping is vulnerable and can be easily severed. It was exposed that [Mossad] spies were killed in Erbil; that their missile factory exploded," Salami said, although it was unclear to which explosion he was referring.

Also Wednesday. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a special address to the nation to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, added a mysterious request for the Iranian people to pray for him.

"In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, I ask all of you dear ones to please pray for me. Pray for yourself and everyone," the 81-year-old Iranian leader wrote on his official Twitter page.

The mysterious and unusual request immediately sparked a wave of speculation on social media sites, where claims have been made in the past that the Islamic republic's leader has a terminal form of cancer.

According to French paper Le Figaro, Khamenei was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and underwent a successful procedure to remove the tumor. Western intelligence agencies later confirmed the report.

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Iran's president has replaced the head of a think tank that recorded an interview with the country's foreign minister that leaked out this week, a tape that provided a rare glimpse into the theocracy's power struggles and set off a firestorm in Iran.

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In the recording of the conversation between Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and an economist at the Strategic Studies Center, the think tank associated with Iran's presidency, Zarif offers a blunt appraisal of diplomacy and his constricted role in the Islamic Republic.

Iran's presidency announced the former chief of the Strategic Studies Center resigned and Ali Rabiei, who already serves as the Cabinet spokesman, would replace him.

The audiotape, leaked earlier this week to London-based, Farsi-language news channel Iran International, set off political controversy across Iran ahead of the country's June 18 presidential election. While Zarif has said he does not want to run in the election, some have suggested him as a potential candidate to stand against hard-liners in the vote.

Zarif's leaked remarks included cutting references to the limits of his power and those of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top commander in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad.

Earlier this week, Zarif expressed regret that the recording had leaked out as the country's president portrayed the breach as an incident intended to derail ongoing talks over the return to Iran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

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A top Iranian security official on Wednesday blamed "deceptive strategy" by the West for holding up any revival of nuclear talks, not "tactical problems" and Iran's domestic politics as stated by France's foreign minister.

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France, along with Britain, Germany and the European Union, were striving to bring the United States and Iran to the table for informal talks as a first step toward reviving Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted international sanctions on the Islamic republic in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.

"There is a tactical problem and also an internal [issue] in Iran, which is in a particular situation because we are quite close to [its] presidential election in June," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a French Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, hit back on Twitter: "Nothing will happen unless the #UnitedStates takes effective actions to lift the oppressive #sanctions."

"The current stalemate is not tactical and domestic, but related to the West's deceptive strategy," Shamkhani said, without mentioning Le Drian.

Le Drian did not say what the tactical problem was, but added that while there was a stated will to return to talks, tensions prevailed and it was urgent to calm the situation and move forward.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday accused his hard-line opponents of obstructing efforts to lift the US sanctions.

"It is a great betrayal of the Iranian nation if any faction or person delays the end of the sanctions even for one hour," Rouhani said in televised remarks.

"The small minority that is obstructing this path needs to stop its destructive act. If it stops … the government can break the sanctions," Rouhani added without elaborating.

"Today, conditions are better than ever for the lifting of the sanctions," Rouhani continued. The Americans, he said, are willing to return to the deal. However, he added: "Words are not enough. We are waiting for action."

Rouhani's close ally, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said this week that unless progress is made soon on restoring the nuclear deal, diplomacy would be halted for months by Iran's presidential election scheduled for June 18.

Iran began breaching the deal's limits on uranium enrichment activity in 2019 in response to a US withdrawal from the deal and reimposition of US economic sanctions ordered by then-US President Donald Trump, who opposed the agreement.

Iran has recently accelerated its breaches in an apparent bid to pressure US President Joe Biden with both sides in a standoff over who should move first to save the deal.

Both sides thus far appear unwilling to compromise. The Iranian New Year this week and the campaign ahead of presidential elections in June in Iran are also likely to complicate matters.

Tehran has ruled out broadening nuclear talks to other subjects such as its ballistic missile program, as called for by Washington.

Rouhani is barred from standing for a third term and the slate of candidates has yet to be finalized.

Iran's hardliners say US sanctions are proof that Rouhani's policy of reaching out to enemies was a failure. A delay in progress on the nuclear issue could hurt the chances of a moderate succeeding Rouhani, although the final decision on any diplomatic initiative would be taken by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather than the elected president.

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Iran, the Middle East's worst-hit country, will begin its coronavirus vaccination campaign in the coming weeks, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Saturday.

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Earlier this month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned the government from importing vaccines from the United States and Britain, which he said were seeking to spread the infection to other countries.

Rouhani himself, in compliance with Khamenei's ban, said at the time that his government would purchase "safe foreign vaccines."

His announcement came as daily COVID deaths fell to a seven-month low, and officials announced that there were no more high-risk "red cities" in the country.

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Approximately 10 parliamentarians who were seeking to impeach the president, and rally other members of the 290 seat body to their side, have backed down, Tasnim reported.

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One MP quoted by Tasnim said that the motion had been dropped after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the country, had expressed support for the government.

Iranians' daily struggle to make ends meet has become harder since the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018, and the economy has been further damaged by rising inflation, growing unemployment, a slump in the rial, and the coronavirus crisis.

First elected in a landslide in 2013 and re-elected in 2017, Rouhani opened the door to nuclear diplomacy with six major powers that led to a 2015 nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curb its sensitive nuclear work in return for the easing of sanctions.

But hardliners opposed to the West were always lukewarm about the agreement, and they fiercely criticized Rouhani when US President Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that have choked Iran's vital oil exports.

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Iranians' daily struggle to make ends meet has become harder since the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018, and the economy has been further damaged by rising inflation, growing unemployment, a slump in the rial, and the coronavirus crisis.

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A motion to question Rouhani was signed by 120 lawmakers out of 290 and handed to the presiding board of the assembly, Tasnim reported. To take effect, the motion must be passed to the president by the presiding board.

However, analysts say the board might hold back from issuing the summons, mindful that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's top authority, has called for unity among the branches of authority at a time when Iran faces mounting US pressure.

A move by parliament to question Rouhani's predecessor was blocked by a rare intervention by Khamenei.

"The lawmakers have various questions for the president, including the reasons behind the foreign exchange market crisis as well as the high prices of basic goods and basic necessities of the people today," Tasnim quoted Tehran lawmaker Eqbal Shakeri as saying.

Defying the central bank attempts to revive its value, Iran's currency, the rial, has continued to fall against the US dollar on the unofficial market since April.

First elected in a landslide in 2013 and reelected in 2017, Rouhani opened the door to nuclear diplomacy with six major powers that led to a 2015 nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curb its sensitive nuclear work in return for the easing of sanctions.

But hardliners opposed to the West were always lukewarm about the agreement, and they fiercely criticized Rouhani when US President Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that have choked Iran's vital oil exports.

Iran's sanctions-damaged economy forced Khamenei to give tentative backing to the accord but the country's top authority has regularly criticized its implementation.

According to Tasnim, lawmakers also planned to ask Rouhani about "the government's strategic mistake that allowed the US withdrawal from the deal at the lowest cost."

On Sunday, shouts of 'liar' interrupted a speech to parliament about the accord by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as some lawmakers vented their displeasure.

Zarif, who is also Iran's top nuclear negotiator, hit back by saying the nuclear talks had been agreed by Khamenei.

Analysts say the hardline Khamenei may be happy to have a weakened Rouhani, but he does not want to harm the legitimacy of the Islamic republic by forcing the president out of office with less than one year of his second-term left.

Iran's parliament has no major influence on foreign affairs or nuclear policy, which are set by Khamenei. But it might bolster hardliners in the 2021 election for president and toughen the anti-Western tilt of Tehran's foreign policy.

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Rouhani was speaking following a Cabinet meeting that was broadcast on state television.

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Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was instrumental in expanding Iran's military influence in the Middle East as the operative who handles clandestine operations outside Iran. The 62-year-old general was regarded as the second-most powerful figure in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"The Americans assassinated our great commander. We have responded to that terrorist act and will respond to it," Rouhani said in a televised speech.

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