Iran's supreme leader endorses reformist Pezeshkian as new president. He takes oath Tuesday

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday formally endorsed Masoud Pezeshkian as president, allowing the reformist politician and heart surgeon to take charge of a country weakened by economic sanctions over its nuclear program.

During an endorsement ceremony, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have “supported and helped” Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies.

Khamenei criticized European nations for “behaving badly to us” by adopting sanctions, an oil embargo and for calling out alleged human rights abuses.

He also condemned Israel for its actions in Gaza in the deaths of children, women and hospitalized people “who did not shoot a single bullet” against Israeli forces.

“The Zionist regime is showing its ugliest face as a war criminal," said Khamenei, accusing Israel of setting a “new record in assassinations" and cruelty. He also denounced the U.S. Congress for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the legislative body.

Speaking at the same ceremony, Pezeshkian paid homage to Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional military activities, who was killed in U.S. drone attack in 2020. He reiterated his promise to pursue a “constructive and efficient" foreign policy, bolster the rule of law offer equal opportunities to citizens, support families and protect the environment.

In his first official act in office, Pezeshkian appointed Mohammad Reza Aref, 72, as his first vice-president. Aref, who's considered a moderate reformist, held the post between 2001-2005 under former president Mohammad Khatami. Aref holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University.

Pezeshkian takes over from his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi whose death in a May helicopter crash that sparked the early election. He will take the oath of office in parliament Tuesday and will have two weeks to form his own cabinet for a vote of confidence in parliament.

The new Iranian president pledged in his election campaign that he would make no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy, embracing Khamenei as the final arbiter in all matters of state. Pezeshkian could bend Iran's foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West and faces the constant challenge of hard-liners still pulling the strings in government.

Pezeshkian has tried to walk the line between hard-liners and reformists with whom he has identified. He has repeatedly criticized the U.S. while praising Iran's powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard for shooting down a U.S. drone in 2019 which he called a “strong punch in the mount of the Americans.”

Among the pressing challenges Pezeshkian faces is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Western fears over enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels with enough of a stockpile to produce several nuclear weapons if it chose.

In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups armed by Tehran — including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have stepped up their own attacks.

Iran has held indirect talks with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration over its nuclear program but there's been no progress in lifting tough economic sanctions against Tehran.

FILE - Masoud Pezeshkian, right, sits next to former Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref during his campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2024. In his first official act in office, newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Aref, 72, as his first Vice-President. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks after giving his official seal of approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have "supported and helped" Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, speaks after giving his official seal of approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, as a photo of the late President Ebrahim Raisi is placed at right, in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have "supported and helped" Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian sits during his endorsement ceremony to receive official seal of approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have "supported and helped" Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, speaks after giving his official seal of approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, as a photo of the late President Ebrahim Raisi is placed at right, in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have "supported and helped" Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks after receiving official seal of approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Khamenei urged Pezeshkian to prioritize neighbors, African and Asian nations as well as countries that have "supported and helped" Iran in Tehran's foreign relations policies. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, gives his official seal of approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, as acting President Mohammad Mokhber stands at left, in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, second left, newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, second right, acting President Mohammad Mokhber, left, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf listen to the country's national anthem at the start of the official endorsement ceremony of Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. A portrait of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini hangs at rear. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, speaks after receiving official seal of approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, second right, and Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei listen, in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Photos of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, top left, and the late President Ebrahim Raisi, bottom right, are seen. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, sits before giving his official seal of approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, in an endorsement ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 28, 2024. A photo of the late President Ebrahim Raisi is seen at right. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Unauthorized migration to European Union countries dropped significantly overall in the first eight months of this year, even as political rhetoric and violence against migrants increased and far-right parties espousing anti-immigration policies made gains at the polls.

There was, however, a spike in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that is increasingly used as an alternate stepping stone to continental Europe.

Irregular migration dominated the European parliamentary elections in June and influenced recent state elections in eastern Germany, where a far-right party won for the first time since World War II. The German government this week announced it was expanding border controls around its territory following recent extremist attacks.

Despite the heated debates, irregular crossings over the southern borders of the EU — the region that sees the most unauthorized migration — were down by 35% from January to August, according to the latest preliminary figures compiled by the United Nation's International Organization for Migration.

Nearly 115,000 migrants — less than 0.03% of the EU’s population — have arrived without permission into the EU via Mediterranean and Atlantic routes so far this year, compared to 176,252 during the same period last year, the U.N. says. In contrast, more than a million people, most of them fleeing conflict in Syria, entered the EU in 2015.

Data shared by the EU's border and coast guard agency Frontex shows a similar trend: Unauthorized crossings over the region's southern borders fell 39% overall this year compared to last year.

“The emergency is not numerical this year, nor was it last year," Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesperson with the IOM office for the Mediterranean, told The Associated Press.

Camille Le Coz, an associate director of the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute in Europe, said irregular migration is “getting way too much attention compared to the scope of the issue and compared to other issues Europe should be tackling, such as climate change."

The most commonly used route for migrants is from North Africa, across the dangerous Central Mediterranean to Italy. Yet roughly 64% fewer migrants disembarked in Italy this year than during the same period in 2023, according to IOM and Frontex numbers.

Experts say that’s a result of the EU-supported crackdown in Tunisia and Libya, which comes at a price for migrants, many of whom are systematically rounded up and dumped in the desert.

How long the downward trend will hold remains to be seen, however. Smugglers are always quick to adapt and find new routes around border controls. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the second-most-used route, smuggling networks are now using speedboats in increasingly aggressive ways to avoid controls and targeting islands farther away from the Turkish coast in the central Aegean, according to Greek authorities.

The number of migrants arriving in Greece by sea and overland during the first eight months of the year rose by 57%, U.N. data shows.

Meanwhile, irregular migration from West Africa to the Canary Islands via the Atlantic, the third-most-used route, has more than doubled: More than 25,500 migrants — mostly from Mali, Senegal and other West African countries — had arrived in the islands as of Aug. 31, the U.N. says.

Countless other migrants have gone missing along the route, where rough winds and strong Atlantic currents work against them. Several migrant boats, carrying only the remains of Malian, Mauritanian and Senegalese citizens, have been found this year drifting as far away as the Caribbean and off Brazil. Precise numbers are hard to verify, but the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders has reported more than 4,000 dead or missing.

The trend has Spanish authorities on alert for the fall, when conditions in the Atlantic are most favorable for the journey. The treacherousness of the route seems to have done little to dissuade would-be migrants, whose ranks have swelled to include people from Syria and Pakistan, according to rescuers.

“There are situations that need to be addressed, like the situation in the Canary Islands,” Le Coz acknowledged.

The adult migrants who successfully make it to the Canaries usually keep moving, headed for the promise of jobs and safety in mainland Spain or other European countries farther north. But that is not the case for thousands of unaccompanied minors. Under Spanish law, these young migrants must be taken under the wing of the local government, leading to overcrowded shelters and a political crisis. Earlier this year, island leaders fought unsuccessfully to have other regions of Spain share the responsibility.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently traveled to three West African countries in an attempt to curb migration. In Senegal, he and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed agreements to promote temporary work opportunities in Spain for Senegalese nationals and vocational training in Senegal. They also agreed to step up police cooperation.

Current anti-immigrant sentiments notwithstanding, Europe’s aging population, declining birth rates and labor shortages have only increased the need for immigrant workers to sustain pensions and boost economic growth.

And as long as migrants lack opportunities in their own countries, their exodus will continue. Add to this the growing instability and conflict in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia that have displaced millions.

“There is no magic deterrence,” Le Coz said. “Migrants end up taking the toll of all of this: They are risking their lives, doing jobs in Europe where they face uncertain legal status for years and are vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation."

While long-term solutions to tackle unauthorized migration are being implemented, such as temporary work programs for migrants, they are still falling short.

“That’s one step in the right direction, but this needs to happen at a much larger scale, and they need the private sector to be more involved,” Le Coz added.

Follow AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

CORRECTS TO DELETE THE EXTRANEOUS WORD OF "UNAUTHORIZED" FROM THE SUBJECTS - FILE - Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

FILE - A child is carried ashore from a crowded wooden boat as unauthorized migrants arrive at the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

FILE - Unauthorized migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

FILE - Unauthorized migrants react as they arrive at the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)

FILE - Unauthorized migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)