PNN – The American media USA Today wrote about the final results of the 14th presidential election in Iran that Masoud Pezishkiyan can influence the overall tone of Iran’s domestic and foreign policy.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, the USA Today website wrote in a report about the Iranian presidential election and the victory of Dr. Massoud Pezishkiyan: An unknown heart surgeon who campaigned for limited and closer relations with the West and some reforms in Iran’s laws, won the second round of Iran’s presidential election.
This American media added: 69-year-old Masoud Pezishkiyan and cautious reformist defeated Saeed Jalili, 58-year-old, a staunch fundamentalist and former nuclear negotiator.
This American media stated that “the victory of the doctors represents a blow to the conservative (fundamentalist) political factions in Iran”, and claimed: “In recent years, moderate voices have been left out in Iran.”
However, the physician is expected to have little immediate influence on the policies of the Islamic Republic, and since he runs the government on a day-to-day basis, he can influence the overall tone of Iran’s domestic and foreign policy, USA TODAY added.
This American media continued: Pezishkiyan, the former Minister of Health, during the election campaign, called for “constructive negotiations” with the West over the Iran nuclear deal.
USA TODAY stated: This Iranian presidential election is taking place in the midst of internal and external tensions. The election coincides with the escalation of tensions in the Middle East due to Israel’s war with Hamas as an ally of Iran in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is also facing increased pressure from the West over its nuclear program.
This American media continued: In the first round of the elections, Iran witnessed a record low turnout of 40%, but according to the Iranian Ministry of Interior, the turnout in the second round was 50%, and doctors were announced as the winners with 53% of the more than 30 million votes counted.
Ali Vaez, an expert on Iran issues at the International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Belgium, told USA Today that the victory of the doctors does not mean that the West will be optimistic about the prospect of diplomatic engagement with Iran. The challenges are many and the solutions to those challenges are not obvious.
He continued that one of the main determining factors for Iran’s renewed diplomacy with the West, including new efforts to resume the JCPOA, is not the developments in Iran’s elections, but the results of the US presidential election in November.
Referring to the JCPOA, Vaez said that even if the Biden administration continues, it will be very difficult to resolve this issue. Iran’s nuclear program is now “so advanced that it is difficult to contain and control. Sanctions are too complex to be easily lifted, and world powers are now at odds.”
He also claimed that the crisis may have been avoided by choosing doctors.