Iran prepares to vote in presidential polls

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani staked his political future on opening Iran ever so slightly to the outside world and overcoming hard-liners' opposition to secure a historic nuclear deal in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.

He'll soon find out if voters think it's enough to keep him in the job.

The 68-year-old cleric, a moderate within Iran's political system, has history on his side as Iranians vote for president today. No incumbent president has failed to win re-election since 1981, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader and most powerful man in Iran, became president himself.

Political analysts and the scant polling data that's available suggest Rouhani will come out on top among the four candidates left running, though an outright win is by no means assured. Failure to secure a majority today would send the two top vote-getters into a runoff a week later, reported AP.

His supporters streamed into downtown Tehran streets thick with police for rallies that lasted into the early hours yesterday, just ahead of a 24-hour no-campaigning period before the vote.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday extended wide sanctions relief for Iran called for under a 2015 international nuclear deal even as he imposed narrow penalties on Iranian and Chinese figures for supporting Iran's ballistic missile program, reported AFP.

The dual actions, announced by the Departments of State and Treasury, appeared intended to signal a tough stance on Iran even as Trump continued predecessor President Barack Obama's pact under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.