Iran’s new president, Massoud Pezeshkian, is taken into account a “reformist” and should assist change the world’s picture of Iran. Pezeshkian defeated a extra conservative candidate, Saeed Jalili, and Iran now needs to current a special face to the West, a extra open and pleasant one. This alternative has fallen into the arms of the Iranians like ripe fruit, as a result of Israel is dealing with the specter of worldwide isolation and Iran can use the scenario to vary its picture within the West.
Who is Masoud Pezeshkian?
Massoud Pezeshkian is a cardiac surgeon, 69 years outdated. He served as Iran’s Minister of Health and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. After finding out medication in Qasr-e-Shirin, Kermanshah province, he served as a physician within the Iran-Iraq War. He then studied cardiac surgical procedure on the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tabtiz, and rose to turn into the college’s president.
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Iranian President Massoud Pezechkian
(Photo: Hossein Sepavand/Iranian Presidential Palace through Getty Images)
Pezeshkian started his political profession in 1997, becoming a member of Mohammed Khatami’s authorities as deputy minister of well being. He served as minister of well being from 2001 to 2005. He ran for president for the primary time in 2013. He tried once more in 2021 however was not allowed to run. He was elected in 2024.
His mom’s ancestry is Kurdish and his father’s is Azerbaijani, he speaks Azerbaijani fluently, and his non-Persian ancestry could have given him a bonus amongst Iran’s many minorities towards his opponent, Said Djalili, and even towards Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran is a fanatical nation, and Western nations have more and more come to see it that means. The hijab protests that swept throughout Iran in 2022 additional tarnished Iran’s picture and hardened the stance of main powers that had already imposed harsh sanctions on Iran.
So Khamenei realized he wanted to placed on a special face, enhance the dialogue, and smile to the West whereas Iran quietly marched towards nuclear weapons, protected by some sort of cope with the world powers. It continues to be Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who units the agenda. The “reformist” president is only for present.
Since taking workplace, Pezechkian has met with leaders of Iranian proxies, together with Hamas’ former political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, who he assured would “stand by the Palestinian individuals till Jerusalem is liberated.”
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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah
(Photo: EPA/WAEL HAMZEH)
Iran’s closest proxy is Hezbollah, and Pezechkian wrote to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah: “Support for the resistance will proceed strongly…Iran has supported and can proceed to assist all resistance within the area towards the Zionist entity…I’m assured that the resistance within the area is not going to enable Hezbollah to proceed its prison acts towards the Palestinian state.”
The president has modified, however Iran coverage seems to be the identical. The solely distinction is the tone wherein it’s expressed.
Unlike former President Ebrahim Raisi, the “Hangman of Tehran,” whose powerful stance on the West was made all of the extra horrifying by his violent previous, President Pezechkian is a physician, former college rector, and somebody who studied public administration in Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Such a president will probably be extra palatable to the West, and due to this fact, they need to be cautious.
The president’s “reformist” label demonstrates that Iranian forces are looking for to use Israel’s diplomatic predicament because it faces a struggle on a number of fronts waged by Iranian proxies — a chance Khamenei merely can not afford to overlook.
By aligning with the West, leaders like Pezechkian can extract many concessions from Iran, together with the lifting of harsh financial sanctions, and Iran, which by no means stops exporting its Islamist revolution, can strengthen its proxies as revolutionaries and fighters towards Israel.
With Israel waging a multi-front struggle and America’s popularity within the area struggling, Iran sees a chance to quietly and discreetly intensify its efforts and obtain its objectives with out attracting Western consideration.
This is a golden alternative for Khamenei, and the brand new president, Pezechkian, is already dashing to name for a return to the nuclear cope with Western nations to finish financial sanctions towards Iran.
A direct trace that Iran’s “taking part in tips” for the West wouldn’t succeed got here from the Shah’s son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in 1979 by Ayatollah Khamenei, Khomeini and their allies, who predicted that Khamenei’s number of Pezeshkian as president “is not going to enable the regime to flee battle and inevitable collapse.”
Eran Rahaf
Reza Pahlavi, who known as Pezeshkian Khamenei’s “primary agent,” acknowledged that the present was run by Supreme Leader Khamenei. Thus, behind the diplomatic pretenses it presents to the West, Iran has turn into extra extremist than ever and decided to advance its regional agenda of nuclear weapons functionality, regional hegemony, and the destruction of the state of Israel. This is Iran’s true character.