Iran has a new president in Masoud Pezeshkian, The Washington Postreports, after the reformist candidate beat conservative hard-liner Saeed Jalili in a runoff election held Friday, July 5. Pezeshkian’s win marks the first time in two decades that a reformist candidate will lead the Islamic Republic, yet the 69-year-old was the only reformist approved to run in snap elections following the death of conservative Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024. According to Iran’s election headquarters, Pezeshkian clinched 16.3 million votes, nearly 3 million more votes than Jalili’s 13.5 million. Compared to Jalili’s higher profile as the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council and former nuclear negotiator, Pezeshkian is considered a relatively under-the-radar candidate. A cardiac surgeon who served as minister of health under Iran’s previous reformist president from 1997 to 2005, Pezeshkian ran on a campaign promising to improve the country’s engagement with the West, ease the country’s strict hijab law, and restart talks around its nuclear program. “While the election could lead to shifts in the priorities, tone and tactics of Iran’s domestic and foreign policies, a fundamental change in the status quo is unlikely,” Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, told CNBC.
