Iran’s Pezeshkian a ray of hope for the West

Good news for democracy in Iran – words which in recent times, particularly in Western news reports, are rarely seen in the same sentence. But the election of Masoud Pezeshkian as president of Iran must be seen as a positive development.

Pezeshkian is a known democrat with a track record as the health minister in the government of the reformist Mohammad Khatami between 2001 and 2005. More recently he strongly criticized the brutal crackdown on mass popular demonstrations in 2018 and 2022.

Pezeshkian defeated his conservative opponent, Saeed Jalili, the former lead nuclear negotiator, by a margin of 2.7 million votes in the run-off vote held on July 7. Turnout was 49.7% of the 61 million eligible voters, ten points more than the first ballot where fewer than 40% voted.

Pezeshkian, 69, was born in the city of Mahabad in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province and speaks fluent Kurdish and Azeri. He trained as a cardiac surgeon and enlisted as a medic in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988.

A vocal proponent of civil rights for Iranian women, Pezeshkian ran for president unsuccessfully in 2013 and 2021 (he was disqualified by the Guardian Council in the latter election).

Pezeshkian is known to be in favor of better relations with Europe, even the US. Speaking from the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, where he went to pray after the election result was announced, he said: “I have come … to seek lasting peace and tranquillity and cooperation in the region, as well as dialogue and constructive interaction with the world.”

But can Pezeshkian deliver the social equality, democratic accountability and human rights that millions of Iranians crave and have been risking their lives