Masoud Pezeshkian: The reformist
The 69-year-old cardiac surgeon whose political career began after joining reformist former president Mohamed Khatami’s government in 1997 led last week’s first round in Iran’s presidential elections by over 10 million votes ahead of runner up Saeed Jalili.
The former health minister and MP for the Tabriz, Osku and Azarshahr electoral district in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran, received 10.4 million votes.
Pezeshkian contested the 2013 presidential elections but quit in favour of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani. His second attempt in 2021 was aborted when the powerful Guardian Council, which vets legislation and approves candidates, rejected him.
The same council’s approval of Pezeshkian only three years later in the early elections has raised eyebrows and opened the door for speculation about its motives.
Pezeshkian, who has a long record of publicly criticising the repression of popular anti-government protests since 2009, may have been admitted in the race by the council in an effort to appease voters and increase turnout by appealing to Iran’s disgruntled and sizeable pro-democracy constituency, observers say.
But judging by the historically low voter turnout of 39.9 per cent in the first round of the elections, Pezeshkian’s presence in the race was not enough to attract Iran’s registered voters, who are either apathetic or have lost faith in the possibility of bringing about political change through elections.
The one million spoilt ballot papers in the elections conveyed part of this protest message to the authorities.
Yet analysts say the fact that a reformist like Pezeshkian led in the first round of the voting last week speaks to a constituency that despite general apathy has placed him ahead of all the other competitors.
Iran’s current reformist presidential candidate is also viewed as Khatami’s protégé, having served as minister of health and medical education in the former president’s government between 2001 and 2005.
But despite his low-key profile, Pezeshkian’s long political career and vocal criticisms of the authorities paints a picture of him that is independent of Khatami’s views and policies. An eloquent public speaker, the former heart surgeon’s professional achievements and personal background have also boosted his appeal in the elections.
Pezeshkian lost his wife and one of his children in a car accident when he was 39 years old. He subsequently raised his other children alone and never remarried.
Endorsed by the reformists, including Khatami, political parties and key figures associated with them have mobilised their efforts to ensure Pezeshkian’s victory. Top-tier figures in his campaign include former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is actively participating in his election campaign.
In a televised debate ahead of the runoff second round of voting, Pezeshkian said the concerns of the 60 per cent of the voters who had abstained from voting in the first round should be addressed. He stressed the importance of reaching out to all Iranians, especially women and ethnic groups, while appealing to Iran’s minority Sunni population, as did his rival.
On foreign policy, Pezeshkian favours expanding Iran’s international ties, prioritising neighbouring countries and then other nations to achieve economic growth. He has defended the 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other powers, citing anti-Iran figures like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former US president Donald Trump, and Saudi Arabia’s opposition to the agreement because it was in Iran’s interests.
Pezeshkian said that sanctions against Iran were acting as a roadblock in attracting trade partners and hampering the country’s aspirations to achieve an eight per cent growth rate.
He has been vocal about women’s issues, including the mandatory wearing of the hijab, and he has expressed his opposition to the parliamentary bill on the implementation of the Islamic dress code that was introduced following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested in Iran for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly, in late 2022.
But even this reformist has had to walk a tight rope to appeal to Iran’s polarised voters. While justifying the country’s restrictions on the Internet, arguing that all governments impose restrictions “during special times, such as protests or strikes,” Pezeshkian insisted at the same time that the current restrictions are unjustified, as there is no “special” situation in Iran.
Earlier this week, Pezeshkian released a documentary titled Gen Z: A View of the Demands of a New Generation, in which he engaged in a townhall debate with young Iranians that was oftentimes intense. The documentary was aired on national TV in Iran on Monday after parts of it were censored.
Saeed Jalili: The conservative
59-year-old former lead nuclear negotiator and former Revolutionary Guards member Saeed Jalili came in second in the first round of Iran’s presidential elections on 28 June with 9.4 million votes.
The anti-West and ultraconservative Jalili holds a PhD in political science and is fluent in Arabic and English, and he led the country’s nuclear talks with the US in 2007-2013 under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He also served as head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013 at the relatively young age of 42.
Jalili’s diplomatic career began when he joined the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 1989. He later moved to the Foreign Ministry, where he was deputy director for North and Central America in 2005 and continued to be considered as Khamenei’s protégé and future successor.
In 2013, Jalili made his first bid for the presidency and finished third. In 2021, he joined the race again but eventually pulled out in favour of the eventual winner Raisi.
He has been one of the most vocal opponents of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a position he highlighted in his election campaign, including in televised debates.
Jalili earned the title of “living martyr” when he lost part of his leg as a soldier at the age of 21 in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The injury left him with a permanently unstable gait.
In 2013, he was appointed by Khamenei to the Expediency Council, a powerful administrative assembly tasked with resolving policy disputes in the country.
In the presidential debates before this year’s elections, Jalili said he would “make the enemy regret” its actions of imposing sanctions on Iran, adding that he had an “action plan” to do this if elected president.
In a recent debate with rival Pezeshkian, Jalili defended Iran’s heavy restrictions on social media, arguing that already-restricted social media platforms like Telegram, X, and Instagram must comply with the Islamic Republic’s regulations before they can operate in Iran, while pledging significantly increased mobile and home Internet speeds if elected.
Jalili, a strong advocate for the mandatory hijab, was born in 1965 in Mashad in north-east Iran, which is known as the Islamic Republic’s second capital because it is a place of religious pilgrimage. His father was a French language teacher.
Jalili’s PhD thesis, titled “Islamic Political Thought as Expressed in the Quran,” was awarded by the Imam Sadeq University in Iran, where he taught political science. It was later published. He published a second book, “The Prophet Mohamed’s Foreign Policy,” in 1999.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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