Chinese President Xi Jinping. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday congratulated reformist Masoud Pezeshkian for his win in Iran’s presidential runoff election, state media reported.

“I attach great importance to the development of China-Iran relations and am willing to work with the President to lead the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership towards deeper advancement,” state news agency Xinhua reported Xi as saying.

The two countries “have a long history of friendly exchanges, and bilateral relations have maintained healthy and stable development… for over half a century,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.

“Faced with complex regional and international situations, China and Iran have always supported each other, worked together and continued to consolidate strategic mutual trust,” he added.

“(This) has not only brought benefits to our two countries’ peoples, but has also made active contributions to promoting regional and world peace and stability,” he said.

China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.

Beijing’s efforts to pull Tehran into its flagship Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure project have been complicated by sanctions.

However, Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, an economic and security initiative backed by Beijing and Moscow, last year.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is seen. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Saudi Arabia, which restored ties with Tehran last year following a years-long rift, on Saturday congratulated Iran’s new president-elect, the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian.

King Salman, in a message to Pezeshkian, expressed hope for the “continued development of relations which link our two countries and our two brotherly peoples,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

He also expressed his wish for further “coordination and dialogue to strengthen regional and international peace and security,” SPA said.

After a seven-year rupture, Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran resumed relations under a surprise China-brokered deal announced in March last year.

Since then the two Middle East powers, which have often supported opposing sides in regional conflicts, have intensified their contacts.

Iran’s ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi travelled to Riyadh in November for a summit on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Raisi’s death in a helicopter accident in May led to Iran’s early election, in which Pezeshkian defeated his ultraconservative challenger Saeed Jalili in a runoff.

The emir of Kuwait, another Gulf state, also sent a cable of congratulations to Pezeshkian, wishing “more prosperity and development” for the Islamic republic, Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian leader Vladimir Putin congratulated Iran’s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on his victory in a presidential runoff, the Kremlin said on July 6.

“I hope that your tenure as president will contribute to a reinforcement of constructive bilateral cooperation between our friendly peoples,” Mr. Putin said in a message to Mr. Pezeshkian.

The two countries, the target of stiff Western sanctions, can “coordinate efforts to resolve international issues in a constructive manner,” he said.

Mr. Pezeshkian received more than 16 million votes, around 54 %, while his rival, ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, took more than 13 million, roughly 44%, out of about 30 million votes cast in the second round.

An election was not due until 2025 but was called early after the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

Four candidates ran in the first round held on June 28.

This undated handout image, released by the office of the Iranian President on July 6, 2024, shows the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian who became the ninth president of Iran with 16,384,403 votes.
| Photo Credit: Office of the Iranian President via Getty Images

Iranians have picked reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as the Islamic republic’s next President in a election to replace Ebrahim Raisi who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.

Mr. Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon, won the largest number of votes in the run-off against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, taking around 16 million votes or 54% of about 30 million cast.

He rode on support from the country’s main reformist coalition and many Iranians who feared a continued hardline grip on power.

Pezeshkian’s promises

In campaigning, Mr. Pezeshkian called for “constructive relations” with Western countries to “get Iran out of its isolation”.

He pledged to try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other powers, which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief.

The deal collapsed in 2018 after Washington withdrew from it.

Within Iran, he vowed to ease long-standing Internet restrictions and to “fully” oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory headscarf on women, a high-profile issue since the death in police custody in 2022 of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been detained for an alleged breach of the dress code, and her death sparked months of deadly unrest nationwide.

Mr. Pezeshkian also pledged to involve more women and ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Baluchis in his government.

He has also promised to reduce inflation, now hovering at around 40%, which he says has “crushed the nation’s back” in recent years.

In one debate with Mr. Jalili, Mr. Pezeshkian estimated that Iran needs $200 billion in foreign investment, which he said could only be provided by mending ties across the world.

The powers he holds

Unlike in many countries, Iran’s President is not head of state, and the ultimate authority rests with the supreme leader — a post held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for 35 years.

As president, Mr. Pezeshkian will hold the second-highest ranking position and will have influence over both domestic and foreign policy.

Setting economic policy will be within his powers.

However, he will have limited power over the police, and virtually none over the Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military’s ideological arm.

The police, the Army and the IRGC all answer directly to the supreme leader.

Mr. Pezeshkian will be tasked with implementing state policies outlined by Mr. Khamenei.

People’s expectations from him

Iranians have mixed feelings towards Mr. Pezeshkian’s victory, with some expressing happiness and others sceptical.

“We really needed a literate president to solve the economic problems of the people,” said Abolfazl, a 40-year-old architect from Tehran who asked only his first name be used.

But Rashed, a 40-year-old barber, said Mr. Pezeshkian’s win “doesn’t matter”, and believed the “situation will only get worse”.

Maziar Khosravi, a political analyst and journalist, said the new President “did not promise an immediate resolution to problems” in Iran.

“People voted for him because they realised his approach was about interacting with the world, which was completely different from the current government,” he said.

Political commentator Mossadegh Mossadeghpoor said people are cautiously “hopeful that he can make some good changes and resolve some of the country’s issues”, especially the economy.

Challenges lying ahead

Analysts say Mr. Pezeshkian will face serious challenges because conservatives still dominate state institutions.

One such institution is parliament, which was elected in March and is dominated by conservatives and ultraconservatives.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who ran in the first round of the election, backed Mr. Jalili in the run-off.

Two other ultraconservatives who dropped out a day before the first round also backed Mr. Jalili.

“Dealing with the issue of hijab or any other ideological matter is out of the hands of the President,” Mossadeghpoor said, noting that this is a religious matter.

Ali Vaez of the International Crisis group says Mr. Pezeshkian will face an uphill battle to secure “social and cultural rights at home and diplomatic engagement abroad”.

On the nuclear issue, Mossadeghpoor said Mr. Pezeshkian may be able to “resolve it if it is the system’s will”.

Diplomatic efforts to revive the 2015 deal with Washington and Europe have faltered over the years.

“No one should expect Iran’s approach to foreign policy to fundamentally change,” said Khosravi.

Iran’s presidential election came amid heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war between Israel and Tehran’s ally Hamas, which has drawn in other Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Mossadeghpoor says Mr. Pezeshkian will “neither reduce Iran’s missile capabilities, nor will he stop supporting resistance front groups”.

A man votes in the run-off presidential election between Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili in Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Iranians began voting on July 5 in a runoff election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East.

Voters face a choice between the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime parliament member who has allied himself with moderates and reformists within Iran’s Shiite theocracy.

An initial round of voting on June 28 saw no candidate get over 50% of the vote, forcing the runoff. It also saw the lowest turnout ever for an Iranian election, leaving turnout on July 5 a major question.

There have been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, though potential voters in Iran appear to have made the decision not to participate last week on their own as there’s no widely accepted opposition movement operating within or outside of the country.

State television broadcast images of modest lines at select polling places around the country as polls opened on July 5.

As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from the ballot while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.

The voting comes as wider tensions have gripped the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build — should it choose to do so — several nuclear weapons. Its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reached by officials now backing Pezeshkian, collapsed in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord. In the time since, hard-liners have taken control of all levers of power within Iran’s government.

While Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state, presidents can bend the country’s policies toward confrontation or negotiation with the West.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is in charge of overseeing the election, announced all the polls had opened at 8 a.m. local time.

Mr. Khamenei cast one of the election’s first votes from his residence, television cameras and photographers capturing him dropping the ballot into the box.

“I have heard that people’s enthusiasm is more than before,“ Mr. Khamenei said. “God willing, people vote and choose the best” candidate.

However, Mr. Khamenei on July 3 said that those who didn’t vote last week weren’t against the country’s Shiite theocracy.

“There are reasons behind this matter which should be examined by sociologists and those involved in politics,” he said.

More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 are eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 to 30. Elections are scheduled to end at 6 p.m. local, but traditionally get extended until midnight to boost participation.

July 5th’s election marks only Iran’s second presidential runoff since 1979. The first came in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bested former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Under Ahmadinejad, Iran faced international sanctions over its advancing nuclear program, as well as the 2009 Green Movement protests and the crackdown that smashed them.

Mr. Pezeshkian’s supporters have been warning Jalili will bring a “Taliban”-style government into Tehran, while Jalili has criticized Pezeshkian for running a campaign of fear-mongering.

The 63-year-old Raisi died in the May 19 helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others. He was seen as a protege of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader. Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

Tehran:

Polls in Iran opened on Friday for a presidential election following the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

Around 61 million Iranians are eligible to vote in the polls where reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, hopes for a breakthrough win against a divided conservative camp.

The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, allowed him to run against a field of conservatives now dominated by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Also left in contention is cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi after two ultraconservatives dropped out — Tehran major Alireza Zakani and Raisi’s former vice president Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi.

“We start the elections” for the country’s 14th presidential ballot, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a televised address.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot shortly after the polls opened and urged Iranians to vote.

“Election day is a day of joy and happiness for us Iranians,” he said in a televised speech where he also called for a high turnout.

“We encourage our dear people to take the issue of voting seriously and participate,” he said.

The election in sanctions-hit Iran comes at a time of high regional tensions between the Islamic Republic and its arch-foes Israel and the United States as the Gaza war rages on.

Polls opened at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) in 58,640 stations across the country, mostly in schools and mosques.

Polling stations will be open for 10 hours, though authorities could extend voting time as in previous elections.

Early projections of the results are expected by Saturday morning and official results by Sunday.

If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a second round will be held on July 5, for only the second time in Iranian electoral history after the 2005 vote went to a runoff.

The candidacy of Pezeshkian, until recently a relative unknown, has revived cautious hopes for Iran’s reformist wing after years of dominance by the conservative and ultraconservative camps.

Iran’s last reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, praised him as “honest, fair, and caring”.

Khatami, who served from 1997 to 2005, had also endorsed the moderate Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidency and sealed Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015 with Western powers before it was derailed three years later.

‘Resolve our problems’ 

The Iranian opposition, particularly the Iranian expatriates, has called for a boycott of the vote.

Ultimate political power in Iran is held by Khamenei, the supreme leader.

Khamenei insisted this week that “the most qualified candidate” must be “the one who truly believes in the principles of the Islamic Revolution” of 1979 that overthrew the US-backed monarchy.

The next president, he said, must allow Iran “to move forward without being dependent on foreign countries”.

However, Khamenei also said that Iran should not “cut its relations with the world”.

During campaign debates, Jalili criticised the moderates for having signed the 2015 nuclear accord which promised Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on the programme.

Jalili said the deal, which the United States withdrew from in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump, “did not benefit Iran at all”.

Pezeshkian has urged efforts to salvage the agreement and lift crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy.

“Are we supposed to be eternally hostile to America, or do we aspire to resolve our problems with this country?” he asked.

The contentious issue of compulsory head covering for women also emerged during the campaign, almost two years since a vast protest movement swept the country after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22.

An Iranian Kurd, Amini had been arrested for an alleged violation of the country’s strict dress code for women.

In the televised debates, all candidates distanced themselves from the sometimes heavy-handed police arrests of women refusing to wear the hijab head covering in public.

Pourmohammadi, the only clerical candidate, said that “under no circumstances should we treat Iranian women with such cruelty.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tehran:

 Iranians will vote for a new president on Friday following Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash, choosing from a tightly controlled group of four candidates loyal to the supreme leader, at a time of growing public frustration.

While the election is unlikely to bring a major shift in the Islamic Republic’s policies, the outcome could influence the succession to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, in power for three-and-a-half decades.

Khamenei has called for a “maximum” turnout to offset a legitimacy crisis fuelled by public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedoms.

Voter turnout has plunged over the past four years, with a mostly young population chafing at political and social restrictions.

Polls open at 8:00 am local time (0430 GMT) and close at 6:00 pm (1430 pm GMT), but are usually extended until as late as midnight. As ballots are counted manually, the final result is expected to be announced only in two days although initial figures may come out sooner.

If no candidate wins at least 50 percent plus one vote from all ballots cast including blank votes, a run-off round between the top two candidates is held on the first Friday after the election result is declared.

Three of the candidates are hardliners and one a low-profile comparative moderate, backed by the reformist faction that has largely been sidelined in Iran in recent years.

Critics of Iran’s clerical rule say the low and declining turnout of recent elections shows the system’s legitimacy has eroded. Just 48% of voters participated in the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, and turnout hit a record low of 41% in a parliamentary election three months ago.

The election now coincides with escalating regional tensions due to war between Israel and Iranian allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear programme.

The next president is not expected to produce any major policy shift on Iran’s nuclear programme or support for militia groups across the Middle East, since Khamenei calls all the shots on top state matters. However, the president runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran’s foreign and domestic policy.

A hardline watchdog body made up of six clerics and six jurists aligned with Khamenei vets candidates. It approved just six candidates from an initial pool of 80. Two hardline candidates subsequently dropped out.

Prominent among the remaining hardliners are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliament speaker and former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator who served for four years in Khamenei’s office.

The sole comparative moderate, Massoud Pezeshkian, is faithful to the country’s theocratic rule but advocates detente with the West, economic reform, social liberalisation and political pluralism.

His chances hinge on reviving the enthusiasm of reform-minded voters who have largely stayed away from the polls for the last four years after previous pragmatist presidents achieved little change. He could also benefit from his rivals’ failure to consolidate the hardline vote.

All four candidates have vowed to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement, state corruption and sanctions reimposed since 2018 after the U.S. ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers.

The hashtag #ElectionCircus has been widely posted on social media platform X by Iranians in the past few weeks, with some activists at home and abroad calling for an election boycott, arguing that a high turnout would legitimise the Islamic Republic.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Massoud Pezeshkian.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Iranians broadly deplore Western sanctions that have battered the economy, but the country’s six presidential candidates offer differing solutions — assuming the winner gets a say on foreign policy.

With the June 28 snap election fast approaching, debates between the candidates vying for Iran’s second-highest office have featured a key question: should Tehran mend ties with the West?

Under the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash, Western governments have expanded sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme as well as its support for militant groups across West Asia and for Russia in its war in Ukraine. The sanctions have sharply reduced Iran’s oil revenues, heavily restricted trade and contributed to soaring inflation, high unemployment and a record low for the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar.

In two televised debates focused on the economy ahead of the presidential polls, “almost all the candidates explained that the sanctions have had devastating effects”, said Fayyaz Zahed, a professor of international relations at the University of Tehran.

While the six contenders — five conservatives and a sole reformist — have all vowed to tackle the economic hardships, they offered varying views on Iran’s relations with the West. “If we could lift the sanctions, Iranians could live comfortably,” said reformist candidate Massoud Pezeshkian, considered one of three frontrunners.

Mr. Pezeshkian, who is backed by key reformist groups in Iran, called for “constructive relations” with Washington and European capitals in order to “get Iran out of its isolation”.

Meanwhile, ultraconservative candidate Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator, has called for Tehran to press ahead with its long-running anti-Western policy. “The international community is not made up of just two or three Western countries,” Mr. Jalili has repeatedly said in debates and campaign rallies.

Dubai:

Iran condemned Canada’s listing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization as “an unwise and unconventional politically-motivated step,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday.

“Canada’s action will not have any effect on the Revolutionary Guards’ legitimate and deterrent power,” Kanaani said, adding that Tehran reserves the right to respond accordingly to the listing.

On Wednesday, Ottawa listed the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, a step that could lead to the investigation of former senior Iranian officials now living in Canada.

The United States took a similar step in 2019 against the Revolutionary Guards, which Western nations accuse of carrying out a global terrorist campaign.

Tehran rejects such claims, saying that the elite force is a sovereign institution responsible for safeguarding national security.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force attending a rally in Tehran, Iran
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

Iran condemned Canada’s listing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation as “an unwise and unconventional politically-motivated step,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday.

“Canada’s action will not have any effect on the Revolutionary Guards’ legitimate and deterrent power,” Mr. Kanaani said, adding that Tehran reserves the right to respond accordingly to the listing.

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On Wednesday, Ottawa listed the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, a step that could lead to the investigation of former senior Iranian officials now living in Canada.

The United States took a similar step in 2019 against the Revolutionary Guards, which Western nations accuse of carrying out a global terrorist campaign.

Tehran rejects such claims, saying that the elite force is a sovereign institution responsible for safeguarding national security.