Pezeshkian initiates consultative process

Iran’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, met with the president-elect, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Sunday. During this crucial meeting, Mokhber presented a comprehensive report detailing the current state of executive affairs across various sectors, including political, economic, cultural, and social fields. This report aimed to provide the president-elect with a thorough understanding of the ongoing initiatives and challenges facing the nation.

Pezeshkian expressed his respect for the late President Ebrahim Raisi, acknowledging his tireless and dedicated efforts throughout his presidency. He also extended his gratitude to the administration's members for their relentless work following Raisi's martyrdom, highlighting the significant and effective steps taken by Mokhber to ensure the smooth operation of the government during this transitional period.

In another significant development, Saeed Jalili, the presidential election candidate and Pezeshkian's rival in the runoff election, met with the president-elect on Saturday night. 

This friendly meeting was marked by Jalili's congratulations to Pezeshkian on his election victory. The two discussed various national issues and Jalili shared his views and proposed solutions.

Pezeshkian emphasized the importance of not only having plans but also employing experts to ensure these plans are successfully implemented. He expressed his readiness to receive Jalili's opinions and suggestions, demonstrating a willingness to incorporate diverse perspectives into his administration.

Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri, the former Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, met with the president-elect on Saturday.

Nateq Nuri congratulated Pezeshkian on his victory in Iran's presidential elections, wishing success for the elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Veteran parliamentarian Pezeshkian emerged victorious in Iran's runoff presidential election, as announced by the interior ministry. 

The election concluded a tight race, with voters turning out in significant numbers on Friday. Pezeshkian received over 16 million votes, surpassing his rival Saeed Jalili, who garnered more than 13 million votes from the total of over 30 million votes cast.

"By gaining a majority of the votes cast on Friday, Pezeshkian has become Iran's next president," stated the interior ministry. 

Pezeshkian's victory marks the end of an intense electoral process and positions him as Iran’s 9th president.

Pezeshkian originally ran against a field of five candidates last week, winning the largest number of votes but falling short of a majority which sent him and Jalili to a second round.  

 

Pezeshkian or Jalili: To be decided on Friday

Iranians are set to head to the polls on Friday, July 5, to choose their next president in a runoff election. Competition is tight between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili who respectively gained 10.41 million and 9.47 million votes during the preliminary round on June 28.

The incoming president will be stepping into the role left vacant by the untimely passing of President Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi tragically lost his life in a helicopter crash on May 19, with more than a year remaining in his term, and was anticipated to secure a second term in 2025.

With a campaign ban taking effect in the early hours of Thursday, we have decided to compare and contrast the plans, perspectives, and campaigns of the two candidates competing in the run-off election in this article.

Pezeshkian’s entrance into the presidential fray was sudden and unexpected. In his own words, he was not expecting to get qualified to run for president, as he had initially failed to get vetted as a nominee by the Guardian Council during the 2023 parliamentary elections.

In many of his debates and addresses to the Iranian populace, the reformist candidate said he needed to “consult experts” on economic and societal issues and refrained from detailing his agenda. While it is in no way bad to seek counsel from experts, some people had hoped that they would hear in more detail how Pezeshkian was planning to govern.

Jalili though, has campaigned for presidency multiple times in the past. He managed to outline more well-received plans and policies during debates. His remarks, however, have sometimes been deemed as too vague or too specific for the general public to understand. The fact that Jalili was allegedly a key contributor to the late President Raisi’s administration, also helped him hold a better grasp of the current issues in the country.

Pezeshkian’s entourage and key supporters are both a strong point and a point of weakness for him due to the reformists’ long and eventful time in office. Though, Pezeshkian has claimed that he does not align with any political party, any figure or former official ever seen besides him during his campaign has been a reformist or centrist.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former foreign minister who signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, is one of the figures who’s garnered both support and disdain for Pezeshkian. Some like Zarif for having commenced close dialogue with the United States for the first time in decades, and some reprimand him for naively compromising on Iran’s nuclear capabilities without making sure that Washington would uphold its commitments.

As for Jalili, there is no denying that his entourage and associates have been a significant vulnerability for him. Some of his representatives ended up making extremely controversial and uncalculated remarks on TV, making it easier for reformists to stigmatize Jalili as an inflexible and hard figure.

Pezeshkian is seen as a critic of President Raisi’s government. He and his advisors have repeatedly accused the Raisi administration of not caring about the termination of sanctions, saying that a reformist comeback in return would ensure the “normalization” of ties with the West.

That’s while most analysts agree that Raisi’s only difference with his centrist predecessor Hassan Rouhani was that he did not believe in tying the country’s existence to the sanctions removal, and sought dialogue with not only the West but also countries outside the Western hemisphere.

Jalili’s potential administration is considered to be a continuation of martyr Raisi’s time in office. Jalili thinks Iran should make the West “regret” its shunning of the JCPOA. He has not explained how his potential administration plans to do that, but his remarks have been praised by some who believe there is no point in expecting sincerity from the West, as such an approach has failed Iran in the past.

Pezeshkian’s views on the economy seem to be more liberal than his opponent. He believes energy prices should increase and the government must have less control over the market.

Jalili on the other hand, is in favor of maintaining and increasing energy subsidies. He also believes that the government must incorporate public participation in the economy, but says the government must still act as a supervising body.

Courtesy: Tehran Times

 

Iran: Candidates receive mixed response

Schedules of the six candidates running for president in the June 28 elections were abuzz with activities and interviews, as they faced conflicting views on their announced policies

Each of the six candidates has selected a campaign manager. Notably, Ali Nikzad, the former Iranian minister of housing and urban development, has been chosen by Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to lead the candidate's promotional efforts. Nikzad was unable to secure approval from the Guardian Council to run as a candidate.

The candidate who garnered the most attention on Tuesday was Masoud Pezeshkian, seen as the reformists' sole chance to reclaim influence. Pezeshkian's earlier statements on national television drew backlash from conservatives, who argued that the candidates appear to lack concrete strategies for crucial matters such as the economy, housing, and foreign policy.

Pezeshkian’s supporters and prominent figures holding moderate and reformist views were quick to come to his defense. The secretary general of the Servants of Construction Party argued that even though Pezeshkian has outlined no plans, he would never do something “detrimental” to the general public as he is “close to the masses”.  

Notably, former Vice President Is’haq Jahangiri, another face among the 74 failing to run for president this year, announced his full support for Pezeshkian. “He is the epitome of sincerity, assertiveness, courage, and moral living,” Jahangiri wrote in a post on X. 

Jahangiri was the vice president under Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidential elections twice with high votes. While the former vice president is undoubtedly considered to be a valuable source of support for Pezeshkian, analysts argue that the collapse of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has caused many voters to decouple from Rouhani and his allies, potentially limiting Jahangiri's influence in helping Pezeshkian collect votes. 

Remarks by conservatives on national television did not seem to stir much debate on Tuesday. Reformists and moderates mostly drew on previous assumptions to portray some of them as politicians with no flexibility. 

A prominent analyst suggested that none of the four conservatives stand a chance of winning the presidency unless some of them withdraw in support of others. Similar cautionary signals suggest that Pezeshkian may still present a significant challenge to his conservative rivals, despite uncertainties surrounding his popularity.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who is believed to hold somewhat moderate views, also spoke to the people on Tuesday. In his remarks, he had a vague emphasis on “happiness”, stating that the government should prepare means of becoming and staying happy for the citizens.

Courtesy: Tehran Times

 

Iran presidential lineup

The Iranian Interior Ministry finally issued the much-awaited list of candidates who were found eligible to run for president, ending a wave of rumors and speculations over the potential array of candidates in the June presidential election. 

The Ministry said in a statement that it received the list of candidates whose qualifications were confirmed by the Guardian Council. The list included a number of prominent figures such as Saeed Jalili, Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, Alireza Zakani, Seyed Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, Mohsen Rezaei, and Abdolnaser Hemmati.

These candidates are now allowed to start election campaigns and promote themselves in the eyes of millions of voters across the country. 

The list of candidates came as a surprise to many observers as it did not include some prominent figures that have been widely thought to be qualified for the 13th presidential election of the Islamic Republic. Former Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, First-Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, and Saeed Mohammad, the former Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ engineering conglomerate Khatam al-Anbiya, were among the disqualified candidates. 

According to Fars News, the election vetting body disqualified at least 18 candidates who are principlist or close to the principlist faction. It also rejected 14 candidates who are reformists or close to the reformist faction. 

This was a clear indication that the Guardian Council refused to vet candidates on the basis of their political affiliation. In fact, the council set a clear example of impartiality and abiding by law by disqualifying Larijani, who currently serves as an advisor to the Leader on international affairs. 

Larijani was widely promoted by moderate and reformist political circles as a candidate whose ties to the establishment enable him to earn qualification from the council and turn the tide in favor of reformists and their moderate allies in the government of Hassan Rouhani. 

But the Guardian Council made it clear that its vetting process is by no means subject to political or “expediency” considerations. Instead, it would examine the candidates in strict accordance with the law. 

In fact, the disqualification of Larijani indicated that the council never discriminates against candidates from different political and social backgrounds. At the end of the day, Larijani has held high-level posts in the Islamic Republic for years and now is currently serving as an advisor to the Leader. This is another indication that the Guardian Council can discharge its legal duties even when it comes to disqualifying high-level figures.

This brings us to the issue of the fluidity of the vetting process, which is more subject to present-day considerations than to past experiences. In some cases, the Guardian Council confirms individuals who have been disqualified in the past and vice versa. This does not mean that council’s criteria for screening are changing from time to time. The standards and criteria of the Guardian Council are subject to the law as a yardstick for who will be qualified or disqualified.

Regardless of the standards, the council performs its duty in legal but quiet ways. Usually, the oversight body does not publicly reveal the reasons behind its decisions regarding the candidates. And this has paved the way for some political factions to unfairly blame it for disqualifying certain candidates. Despite these criticisms, the council continues to protect the confidentiality of the vetting process. This has much to do with protecting the privacy of candidates.  

If the council reveals the reasons behind the disqualifications, the disqualified candidates’ reputation may be damaged; at the end of the day, the vetting process also includes security details about the candidates. That’s why the Guardian Council continues to vet candidates in a legal way while protecting the candidates’ reputation from being undermined by a formal process that is designed to increase social and political cohesion.
 

What next for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani?

Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, who sought re-election, won a landslide victory. He got 23.549 million votes out of a total of more than 41 million votes and his arch-rival Ebrahim Raisi got 15.786 million votes.

Iranians seeking greater freedoms have voted for President Hassan Rouhani, to secure second term. However, he is likely to face resistance by the hardliner.

There is perception that Rouhani will face more pressure in his second term as it is feared that the hardliners will create more problems for him.

Rouhani has decisively defeated Khamenei's protégé, hard-line judge Ebrahim Raisi, but the supreme leader still makes the ultimate decisions on policy, and his conservative faction still controls the judiciary and security forces.

They (hardliners) may re-assert their dominance at home by more confrontation abroad, by extending Iran's interventions in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. They also fear more confrontational policy with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

However, certain quarters believe that since economy is the top priority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Rouhani's liberal economic policies are likely to get his endorsement, like the cautious support he got for the nuclear deal.

Rouhani, landslide victory in 2013 was on a promise to reduce Iran's diplomatic isolation, spent most of his time on the nuclear agreement with six powers that resulted in a lifting of most sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.

Rouhani will have to find an accommodation with them, or end up like his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami, who whetted Iranians' appetite for change but failed to deliver it during two terms from 1997-2005.

The silver lining is that Rouhani has built his reputation as an establishment figure who could deliver some of the aims sought by reformists without alienating conservatives.

The added advantage is, Rouhani is a regime insider. He is loyal to the establishment. He is not a reformist but a bridge between hardliners and reformists.