An unknown heart surgeon who campaigned on limited but closer ties with the West and on reforming some of Iran's strict moral codes for women has won Iran's presidential runoff election, the country's interior ministry said on Saturday.
Iranian state television, citing the ministry, reported that Massoud Pezeshkian, 69, a cautious reformer, defeated Saeed Jalili, 58, an ultra-conservative ideologue and former nuclear negotiator. Pezeshkian's victory is a blow to Iran's conservative faction, which has been ignoring moderate voices in recent years.
However, with Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tightly controlling all important domestic and foreign affairs of the state, Pezeshkian was expected to have little immediate influence over Iranian policy. However, Iran's new president will likely be heavily involved in choosing Khamenei's successor, and because he runs the day-to-day government he will be able to influence the overall direction of Iran's domestic and foreign policy.
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The election comes amid rising tensions at home and abroad. Support for clerical rule is fading in Iran amid growing public frustration over economic hardship and restrictions on political and social freedoms. It also comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East due to war between Israel and Iran's allies Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is also facing increasing pressure from the West over progress in its nuclear program.
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The election to choose a successor to Iran's Prime Minister Ebrahim Raisi was held following his death in a helicopter crash in May. Four candidates ran in the last election but no clear winner was chosen.
In the first round, turnout was a record low of 40 percent as many Iranians boycotted the polls in protest. When voting closed at midnight Iranian time, the Interior Ministry said turnout was 50 percent. Pezeshkian was declared the winner, receiving 53 percent of the 30 million votes counted. Jalili won 44 percent.
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Pezeshkian, a member of Iran's Azerbaijani minority, has emphasized the rights of minorities. During her election campaign, the former health minister criticized Iran's so-called morality police for cracking down too hard on female protesters who flout modesty dress codes. She also called for an end to Iran's “isolation” in the world and for “constructive talks” with Western countries over Iran's stalled nuclear deal.
Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based think tank, said Pezechkian's victory does not mean Western countries “should become optimistic about the prospects for diplomatic engagement with Iran. The challenges are enormous and the solutions are not clear.”
He said one of the main factors in deciding whether to pursue renewed diplomatic ties with the West, including renewed efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, will not be what happens in the Iranian elections, but rather what happens in the U.S. elections in November.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear agreement.
“Even if we have a Biden administration, this issue is going to be extremely difficult to resolve,” Vaez said of the deal, known as the JCPOA, which was brokered under former President Barack Obama when Joe Biden was vice president. The agreement eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for limiting the country's uranium enrichment program, which Iran's critics allege is using to build a nuclear weapons program.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes only. Few believe that.
Vaez said Iran's nuclear program “is too advanced to be contained in a box any longer, sanctions are too complex to be easily rolled back, and the world's powers are now even more divided.”
He also said the crisis could have been averted if Pezechkian had been elected: “With these two presidents, Jalili and Trump, Iran would have become the 10th nuclear power in the world.”
