The Anti-Defamation League said on Sunday that the re-election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani does not change the imperative that the world must be vigilant and oppose the regime’s internal and external aggressions. CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt explained in a statement, "Incumbent Hassan Rouhani was one of the handful of candidates handpicked by Iran’s Supreme Leader and the Guardian Council. And, indeed, the ultimate power in the country continues to lie with the Supreme Leader. It is even a stretch to call this an election in any conventional sense when all the contestants were hand-picked by the Supreme Leader, when outsiders were not permitted to observe the process, and when minority candidates were excluded from the polls."
Regarding Rouhani, Greenblatt said, "We cannot forget that under this so-called ‘moderate’ leader, there was no slowdown in Iran's aggressive regional policy, including state sponsorship of terrorism; active participation in war crimes committed in Syria; and unceasing belligerence against Israel that manifested through financial and material support for terror organizations along with an unrelenting stream of anti-Semitic propaganda."