TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani trounced a hard-line challenger to secure re-election Saturday, saying his country seeks peace and friendship as it pursues a “path of coexistence and interaction with the world.”

Friday’s election was widely seen as a referendum on the 68-year-old cleric’s push for greater freedom at home and outreach to the wider world, which culminated in the completion of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal that hard-liners initially opposed.

HASSAN ROUHANI

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts his ballot in the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, on Friday. Iranians voted in the country's first presidential election since its nuclear deal with world powers, as incumbent Hassan Rouhani faced a staunch challenge from a hard-line opponent over his outreach to the West. Office of Iranian Supreme Leader via APl

The nuclear deal won Iran relief from international sanctions in exchange for limits on its contested nuclear program.

But Iran continues to suffer from high unemployment and a dearth of foreign investment, putting pressure on Rouhani to show he can do more to turn the sluggish economy around.