• Masoud Pezeshkian won the runoff presidential election against Saeed Jalili, receiving over 16 million votes compared to Jalili’s 13 million. 

• The election was called early following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May. 

• Pezeshkian’s victory has raised the hopes of Iran’s reformists after years of dominance by the conservative and ultraconservative camps.

• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme.

A heart surgeon who rose to power

• Pezeshkian takes over the presidency amid heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme and domestic discontent over the state of Iran's sanctions-hit economy.

• Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon, has called for constructive relations with Western countries to revive the nuclear deal in order to get Iran out of its isolation.

• He is known to be a reformist and a moderate. His views offer a contrast to that of former President Ebrahim Raisi.

• In the lead-up to the elections, Iran’s main reformist coalition threw its weight behind Pezeshkian, with former Presidents Mohammad Khatami and the moderate Hassan Rouhani declaring support for his bid.

• Though the President’s role is limited as shots are called by the Supreme Leader on matters regarding top affairs, Pezeshkian vowed to promote a pragmatic foreign policy, ease tensions over now-stalled negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear pact and improve prospects for social liberalisation and political pluralism.

• Pezeshkian was born in 1954 in the city of Mahabad in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.

• He became a heart surgeon and served as the head of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.

• During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Pezeshkian was tasked with the deployment of medical teams to the front lines.

• He was health minister from 2001-05 during former President Muhammad Khatami’s second term.

• He has represented Tabriz in Iran’s Parliament since 2008.

• During the row over Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022, Pezeshkian demanded clarification from authorities about her death. Amini, 22, had died in custody after she was arrested for allegedly violating the law restricting women’s dress.

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