The six candidates competing in Iran's presidential election have squared off in their third and final televised debate, with President Hassan Rouhani lashing out at his hardline opponents and vowing to get rid of the remaining sanctions following 2015's nuclear deal. The two main rivals mostly hammered Rouhani's record on the economy, arguing that jobs have been lost and prices have risen despite the 2015 agreement Rouhani reached with global powers to lift sanctions in return for curbing Iran's nuclear programme. “We won’t accept gender discrimination, we won’t accept gender oppression … we want social and political freedom,” he said amid occasional eruptions of chants in support of opposition leaders under house arrest, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The first round is on May 19, with a run-off a week later if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote. In two earlier, bruising debates, the main challengers, cleric Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, tore into Rouhani's economic record, arguing that he failed to bring Iranians a better life despite the lifting of sanctions. But please don't abuse religion for power," Rouhani said at one point to his main hardline rival, Ebrahim Raisi, a judicial official and protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Candidates debate on live television with the rivals of frontrunner and current president, Hassan Rouhani, taking aim at his economic policies.