Rohani becomes Iran’s new president

Hassan Rohani has won Iran's 11th presidential election following a vote that saw mass popular turnout on June 14.

Of the 36, 704,156 votes tallied, Rohani won a total of 18,613,329 votes, securing 50.70 percent of the vote.

The newly-elected Iranian president was born into a religious family on November 13, 1948 in the city of Sorkheh in Semnan Province.

Rohani started his religious education in 1960 at Semnan Seminary. One year later, he moved to the holy city of Qom. In 1969, he was admitted to Tehran University and received his BA in law after three years. Rohani earned his MA and PhD in law from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Rohani was involved in the struggle against the Pahlavi regime as a young man. After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from exile in France in 1979, Rohani was politically active in Europe. He held question-and-answer sessions with students in Britain and France.

Rohani was elected to parliament following the establishment of the Islamic Republic and served as a lawmaker for five consecutive terms until 2000. He held positions such as deputy Majlis Speaker and head of the Defense and Foreign Policy committees.

During the 1980-1988 Iraqi imposed war, Rohani served as member of the High Council of Defense, commander of the Iran Air Defense and deputy commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.

Rohani currently represents Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council, and is member of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts. He is also President of the Expediency Council's Center for Strategic Research.

Rohani speaks fluent English, Arabic and Persian and has written nearly 100 books and articles as well as conducting 700 different research projects. .