Iran’s presidential candidates discuss economic policy in the second live debate ahead of the vote on June 28

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — In the second live debate on state television, six presidential candidates on Thursday discussed Iran’s economic problems ahead of the June 28 election, following a helicopter crash last month that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others .

It was the second of five debates planned in the days before the election in a shortened campaign to replace Raisi, a hardline protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was once mooted as a possible successor to the 85-year-old cleric.

Like the first debate, the second also focused on the economy, with the candidates discussing their proposals for Iran’s spiraling economy, which is struggling with sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western countries.

The candidates also discussed inflation, the budget deficit, fuel subsidies and education. All pledged to try to lift sanctions and implement reforms, but none offered concrete details.

“Negotiation is a method of struggle,” said prominent candidate Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, 62, regarding the lifting of Western sanctions on Iran. Qalibaf is a former mayor of Tehran with close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

He emphasized the destructive nature of the sanctions on the economy and said Iranians have the right to a good life, not just an ordinary life.

Iranian Vice President Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, 53, said he will continue Raisi’s unfinished government and vowed to develop the tourism sector.

Regarding the health sector and the emigration of doctors and nurses abroad, Qalibaf said there needs to be a fundamental change in the way health workers are paid to increase motivation to stay.

Many doctors and nurses have reportedly left Iran in recent years due to increasing economic problems and poor working conditions. Qalibaf’s call for more pay for health workers was echoed by the other candidates.

All candidates said they believe the Ministry of Education is the most important part of the government because “the country’s next generation is being raised in this ministry.” Qalibaf said the ministry’s budget should be increased.

The only pro-reform candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, who is backed by reformist figures such as former President Mohammad Khatami and former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, thinks the economic crisis can be resolved by resolving party differences within the country and abroad. factors.

The June 28 election comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, Russia’s arming of that country’s war against Ukraine and its sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Iran’s support for proxy militias in the wider Middle East, meanwhile, is increasingly in the spotlight as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attack ships in the Red Sea over the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.