Iran took its first steps into a new future with flickering hopes that the historic and overwhelming victory of Hassan Rouhani in a landmark election will usher in a future of reform at home and reconciliation abroad.

Mr Rouhani’s triumph was not only an emphatic endorsement of his platform for change, but a ringing rejection of his hardline opponent Ebrahim Raisi who had claimed to champion the legacy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. With a massive victory by the liberals in last year’s parliamentary election, the President now has the opportunity to push through much-needed legislation which critics say have been slow in coming.

In his first televised address following the win, President Rouhani made the deliberate and controversial gesture of praising former president Mohammed Khatami – ignoring a ban on publicly mentioning or publishing his picture the former leader whose attempts at reform were thwarted by reactionary senior clergy.

The President also pointedly praised, among others, students, academics and activists for championing the democratic process. These are precisely the type of people targeted by previous Islamic regimes in Iran, especially that of his predecessor as president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr Rouhani’s supporters had repeatedly likened Mr Raisi to Mr Ahmadinejad, whose rule is viewed as a dark period in Iranian history.

Mr Rouhani spoke sitting in front of a blue wall with photographs of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini and Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s current Supreme Leader. Grand Ayatollah Khameini, it is believed, had backed Mr Raisi. He issued a statement praising the “massive and epic” level of voting, but did not congratulate Mr Rouhani directly, as he had done following the previous election in 2013.

The President pledged to continue his modernising programme, and praised Iran’s people for their show of unity and refusal to listen to those who, he said, wanted to spread suspicion and disunity. He also stressed that the vote showed that the Iranian people wanted to reach out to the international community on a “basis of mutual respect and its national interests”. He stressed that his country will not accept “humiliation and threats, this is the most important message that our nation expects to be heard by all – particularly world powers”.

The election mandate gives Mr Rouhani leverage with the outside world especially with deep concern over possible actions of Donald Trump. The US President had threatened to tear up the nuclear deal Iran had signed with world powers during the US election campaign and he is currently on trips to Saudi Arabia and Israel – two countries who regard Iran as an enemy. Mr Trump is expected to make a speech in Riyadh which, it is claimed, will be highly belligerent towards Tehran.

The Iranian government believes that the other five states (including Britain) which signed the deal, and have stressed that Iran is fulfilling its commitment, will be a buttress in preventing in preventing Mr Trump pushing back towards international isolation just as the country has shown its determination to engage with the outside world.

The result will shape not only Iran’s future but have significant repercussions far beyond its borders. Mr Rouhani, had said during the campaign that he was committed to opening up the country more to the outside world. He had also announced that under him Shia Iran would seek to hold talks with Sunni states: rivalry between the two sides had led to a number of vicious proxy sectarian conflicts in the region including in Yemen.

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Mr Raisi had repeatedly criticised the nuclear deal, charging that it had compromised national security while achieving little tangible in return. He had been one of the main backers of the policy of sending Iranian fighters to Syria and Iraq, holding that this kept the enemy away from the country’s frontiers.

Vladimir Putin was among the first world leaders to congratulate Mr Rouhani on his victory. The Kremlin stated that the Russian President “confirmed his readiness to continue active joint work on the further development of Russian- Iranian partnership cooperation both on the bilateral and international agenda”.

Russian and Iranian forces are propping up the regime in Syria. President Bashar al-Assad, in his message, spoke of the “confidence that the Iranian people gave to him to go forward in boosting Iran’s status in the region and the world” and that Syria would work with Tehran “in what boosts security and stability in the two countries, the region and the world”.

Mr Rouhani’s win was built on an exceptionally large turnout of 70 per cent – over 41 million cast their vote – which led to polling stations being kept open late into the evening, solidifying votes for the President. His followers had stressed that getting the vote out would lead to victory for their man. Attacks by Mr Raisi and the conservatives on Mr Rouhani’s liberalising domestic agenda and his signing of the nuclear deal with international powers failed with the voters, as the President saw off the challenger by 57 per cent to 38 per cent.

Supporters of Mr Rouhani were out in the streets celebrating on Friday night. Rustam Housseni, a 23-year-old student, said: “There was a lot of nervousness at the end that Raisi would make gains and may even win. Believe me, that would have been really bad for Iran. Now [Rouhani] has four years to make reforms, four years to open up our country to the world. This is a very precious time”.

Alarm at the prospect of a victory by the hardliners had led to a late citizens’ campaign to get out the vote. “We had asked people who didn’t want to vote, ‘please, you must, it is so important’, and we had mostly succeeded”, said Malihe Afroozifar, a 34-year-old engineer.