The Observer view on what Iran's new president means for the Middle East | Observer editorial

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : Tehran recently signed a 25-year trade and military partnership with Beijing.
52% : Deal or no deal, it's suggested, Iran may soon be able to build an atomic weapon.
46% : Earlier this year, there was talk of an easing of tensions between Iran and its arch-rival, Saudi Arabia.
44% : Iran, they suspect, has gained so much bomb-making know-how in the meantime that the nuclear cat, figuratively speaking, is out of the bag.
44% : At this perilous juncture, the US and Britain, too, must strive ever more urgently to keep the door open and advance dialogue with Tehran.
41% : Concern grows in Washington, meanwhile, that smouldering conflicts involving Tehran and other regional actors, fanned by the changes of leadership in Iran and Israel, could ignite.
35% : Ebrahim Raisi is another hardliner, but western leaders must engage with him to cool the tensions threatening the regionA hardline president has taken charge in Iran.
34% : An inexperienced government in Israel is threatening military action against Tehran.
34% : This is a perilous, darkly portentous moment in the Middle East and specifically for the multifaceted conflict between Iran and the west.
34% : As always, Iran denies responsibility.
20% : It pinned its hopes of defusing tensions with Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear pact that was petulantly abandoned by Trump.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.