Iranians denied free and fair electoral process: US as Ebrahim Raisi wins election

Many voters chose to stay away after the field of some 600 hopefuls, including 40 women, had been winnowed down to seven candidates.

The United States said Saturday it regretted Iranians were not able to participate in a "free and fair electoral process" in the country's presidential election. In the first reaction from Washington to ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi's election win, a State Department spokesperson said "Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process." The United States will nonetheless continue indirect talks with Iran on the US rejoining the 2015 nuclear accord that Donald Trump abandoned, the spokesperson also said.