Iran’s new president has paid tribute to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, playing down suggestions that the reformist platform on which he was elected would lead to significant change in the policies of the Islamic Republic.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon-turned-MP, beat Saeed Jalili, a hardline former negotiator on Iran’s nuclear programme, in the run-off vote on Friday on a reformist ticket. He had been banned from standing for the presidency at the last election in 2021.
In his campaign he promised better relations with the outside world — except Israel — in line with his previous position, and in contrast to the hostile stance of hardliners such as Ebrahim Raisi, whose death in a helicopter accident in May triggered the election.
Pezeshkian’s chief foreign policy adviser for the campaign was Mohammad Javad Zarif, the American-educated former foreign minister who negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal with western powers.
Pezeshkian had made no concrete promises of reform in his campaign, even on the hotly debated issue of women’s dress. He is said to believe in relaxing the rules on compulsory head coverings. In a victory rally on Saturday night he made a virtue of his vague campaign promises, almost certainly a requirement for his being allowed to stand for office this time. The names of other more prominent and outspoken reformist candidates were removed from the ballot paper.
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“In this election, I did not make false promises,” he said. “I did not say anything that I would not be able to fulfil, only to have it revealed as a lie later.”
The speech was delivered at the mausoleum of the Islamic republic’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a symbolic choice.
He said: “I must first thank the leader of the Islamic revolution. Without his guidance, I do not believe my name would have emerged from these ballots. It was through his leadership that we were able to reach this point.”
Pezeshkian had already held a private meeting with Khamenei, who oversees all key decisions facing Iran, and whose intentions towards relations with the West and on the nuclear programme are unclear at present.
Khamenei told the new president he should “look towards the future and continue the path of Raisi. I recommend that he utilise the full potential of the country, especially the revolutionary youth, for the sake of progress.”
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Even besides his politics, Pezeshkian is a comparative outsider compared with Raisi, a cleric, state prosecutor, attorney-general and finally chief justice before becoming president three years ago.
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Pezeshkian, 69, is an ethnic Azeri from the north of the country who, after training as a surgeon, became head of the Tabriz University medical school before being appointed deputy health minister by the reformist president Mohammad Khatami in 1997. He became health minister in Khatami’s second term.
His success in the first round of voting came as a surprise. A low turnout indicated many people stayed at home, assuming that two of the better-known, hardline candidates such as Jalili would proceed to the second ballot. The turnout on Friday, after Pezeshkian reached the second round, reached almost 50 per cent.
The fact that Pezeshkian was allowed to stand at all may itself be a hint that Khamenei is seeking to reduce Iran’s isolation from the West. The Ukraine war and a de-escalation of Iran’s confrontation with Saudi Arabia has brought Iran closer to Russia and China, but without solving the economic problems caused by the blockade put in place by Donald Trump when he pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions.
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Pezeshkian has warned of the dangers of putting all of Iran’s diplomatic eggs in the Russian and Chinese baskets. He will be sworn in during the first week in August and will then have 15 days to form a government and have it approved by parliament.
