The Islamic Revolution occurred in 1979. During the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, Pezeshkian served as a fighter and physician, ceaselessly touring to the entrance line and reportedly chargeable for sending medical groups to deal with the wounded.
After the conflict, Pezeshkian continued his schooling and graduated with an MBBS basically surgical procedure from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. In 1993, he acquired his speciality in cardiac surgical procedure from the Iran University of Medical Sciences. In 1994, he turned the rector of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
Pezeshkian entered politics when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Health on the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education within the first cupboard of President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, who served from August 1997 to August 2005. Khatami was an Iranian reformist politician. Pezeshkian has since been elected to the Iranian Parliament 5 instances, serving as its First Deputy Speaker from 2016 to 2020. During his time as a member of the National Assembly, he additionally served as a member of the Education and Health Committee.
His spouse was an obstetrician-gynecologist. In 1993, she and their youngest son died in a automobile accident, which deeply affected him. He has raised his two remaining sons and one daughter on his personal and has not remarried.
Pezeshkian is taken into account a reformist politician and calls his conservative and hardline rivals “Taliban.” He is economically a proponent of cooperation with Western international locations to carry sanctions, which he says have had a extreme affect on Iran’s economic system. He opposed the suppression of protests in 2009 and 2019, and has been vocal in regards to the causes of the 2022 protests sparked by Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not sporting a hijab and died in police custody.
“Those who voted for me or my opponent, or who stayed out of the race out of concern, criticism or protest, predict change from the system, from me and from any future authorities, and the time to reply successfully begins in the present day,” Pezeshkian mentioned this week after being sworn in. “I stay a servant of the noble individuals of Iran who consciously stepped onto this stage, and their vote locations a heavy burden on the shoulders of this humble man in a essential scenario.”
This week, Khatami selected as his first vp Dr. Mohammed Reza Aref, a fellow educational and political reformer who served as vp below Khatami, in addition to deputy minister of science and minister of communications and data know-how.
Some political specialists say expectations for reform or a renewed relationship with the West must be tempered, given obstacles corresponding to present points within the Middle East over Israel and the truth that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wields an excessive amount of energy.
Pezeshkian’s limitations as a reformer had been additionally shortly examined inside hours of taking workplace. Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli airstrike within the Iranian capital, Tehran. Haniyeh attended the inauguration and met with Pezeshkian to debate the Gaza conflict. Pezeshkian was fast to sentence the assault on Iranian territory and say Iran would reply.