The surprise election in Iran of the only real reformist candidate for president was met with an unsurprising response from the United States.
Heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian tallied 53 percent of the vote for a transparent but narrow victory over hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in an electoral process the State Department labeled “not free or fair.”
It followed the May 19 death of the previous president in a helicopter crash.
With “no expectation [of] fundamental change,” the angle from Washington echoed that of Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. The Pakistani-British lawyer stated that a latest president is unlikely to enhance the Islamic Republic’s record.
Iranian Christian sources within the diaspora agree.
“The result highlights a superficial change in leadership,” said Robert Karami, an Iranian Church of England pastor outside London and a board member of Release International, a UK-based advocate for the persecuted church. “It doesn’t matter who holds the presidential office so long as the Supreme Leader stays in power.”
Pezeshkian, age 69, was considered one of six candidates permitted to run by Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council, appointed by head of state Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Dozens of candidates were disqualified, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Analysts speculated the inclusion of Pezeshkian was intended to extend voter turnout—but if that’s the case, the strategy initially failed and could have backfired.
Only 40 percent of the electorate participated in the primary round held on June 28, the bottom tally because the 1979 Iranian revolution. It resulted in the primary runoff since 2005, resulting in a hostile campaign through which leading figures claimed Jalili would rule Iran just like the Taliban in Afghanistan. Voters partially responded, as election day on July 5 witnessed an increased turnout of fifty percent.
But not Mansour Borji, who boycotted the diaspora ballot stations within the UK.
“I participated within the election by not voting, joining the bulk who said no to the Islamic Republic,” said the director of Iranian religious freedom advocacy organization Article18. “Nor could I bring myself to achieve this on the thirtieth anniversary of pastors killed by the regime.”
July 5 marked the anniversary of when the last of the three victims—two of whom were Assemblies of God leaders—was identified in 1994.
Borji said that many Iranian Christians likely breathed a “sigh of relief” that Jalili didn’t win. His campaign called for strict adherence to Islamic law amid continued confrontation with the West while deepening ties with Russia and China. But as Pezeshkian has acknowledged that foreign policy is within the hands of Khamenei, Borji saw “little difference” between the 2 candidates.
Both had pledged to enhance the economy, which has been in a tailspin since 2018 when Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the nuclear deal that limited Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from sanctions. At the time the accord was signed under then–US president Barack Obama, the US dollar equaled 32,000 Iranian rials; it now trades for greater than 600,000 rials.
Pezeshkian, nonetheless, linked improving the economy to negotiations with the US over sanctions, and would unilaterally return Iran’s nuclear program to compliance with the terms of the unique deal. His candidacy was endorsed by Mohammad Zarif, the diplomat who forged the nuclear take care of the US and is alleged to return to his post.
Other indicators led Western press to just accept Pezeshkian’s “reformist” label. Born to an Azeri father and Kurdish mother, he’s the primary president in many years to hail from Iran’s west, a region considered more tolerant as a consequence of its many minority populations—which he promised to represent. He counted “those that don’t pray” amongst his supporters. And he struck a singular figure as a single father campaigning together with his daughter at his side, never remarrying after the death of his wife in a 1994 automotive accident.
Pezeshkian also said he would resist hijab enforcement and web restrictions.
But Borji and Karami, the UK pastor, each cited Pezeshkian’s history as a guardian of Iranian patriarchy. As head of the medical team on the Tabriz hospital, he reduced the variety of female students and staff. He also imposed the wearing of the hijab there before it was legally mandatory, and through his 14-year parliamentary tenure he supported the laws to make it so.
Pezeshkian unsuccessfully ran for president in 2013 and 2021, and could have adjusted his beliefs—or at the very least his rhetoric. He criticized the 2022 crackdown on demonstrators that killed 500 people and detained 22,000 others following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had violated the hijab law. He even stated it was “scientifically not possible” to implement religious faith through force.
But Karami said he also called the protests useful for the enemies of Iran.
“Pezeshkian projects a picture of modernity and reform,” he said. “But most Iranians view his ascension as a strategic maneuver by the Supreme Leader to purchase time and appease the West.”
Borji agreed, calling the election a “circus” to garner legitimacy for Iran.
“Pezeshkian could also be a heart surgeon,” he said. “But he doesn’t have the ability or technique to win over the hearts of the bulk.”
Heart change, nonetheless, is the needed solution, said Nathan Rostampour.
“My only hope for Iran is Jesus Christ,” said the Persian ministry director for Summit Church in North Carolina and a trustee of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. “There are not any real reformists within the system, anyway—they’re all in prison.”
Rostampour said that Iran’s local church must concentrate on the Great Commission, emphasize discipleship, and develop into shining examples of the love of God through social service. Traditional reform is not possible, because the regime controls all the pieces.
And it continues to persecute Christians. Last 12 months, 166 followers of Christ were arrested, one-third of whom were involved in Bible distribution. And while Pezeshkian has made overtures to Iran’s ethnic and non secular minorities, especially Sunni Muslims, will he—or can he—advance religious freedom for converts from Islam?
One survey finds Iranian Christians now number almost 1 million.
“While Pezeshkian’s win is ostensibly a victory for reform, it ultimately signifies little within the broader context of Iranian politics,” said Karami. “Until the ability structure is fundamentally modified, the long run for Christians stays bleak.”
