Category: Ebrahim Raisi
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Will Pezeshkian’s Win Lead to a Thaw in U.S.-Iran Relations?
To the surprise of many, a relatively unknown candidate won Iran’s presidential elections. Masoud Pezeshkian, a parliamentarian and former health minister who had next to no name recognition outside Iran and is not even an especially high-profile figure domestically, prevailed against arch-hardliner Saeed Jalili in the runoff on July 5. To the surprise of many,…
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Can Iran’s reformist President-elect deliver on his promises? | In Focus podcast
Iran held early presidential elections following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. In the presidential run-off held last week, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won with 53.7% of the votes. During his campaign, he promised to work towards easing social restrictions, especially with regard to the mandatory headscarf and internet freedom. On…
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Iran Update, July 11, 2024 – Critical Threats Project
6 hours ago Information Cutoff: 2:00 pm ET The Iran Update provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities abroad that undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. It also covers events and trends that affect the stability and decision-making of the Iranian regime. The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute…
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Meet Iran’s New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
Excerpt The accidental death in May of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric of unwavering loyalty to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, obliged Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to call for a new election. Mr. Khamenei surely views presidential elections with trepidation. They have for three decades routinely revealed the Iranian electorate’s distaste for him and the theocracy that actually…
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What to Expect From Iran’s New President
Borna_Mirahmadian/Shutterstock Iran has elected a new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to fill the position vacated by the death of Ebrahim Raisi in May. Following a first round of voting on Jun. 28, in which none of the four candidates achieved the 50% needed to win outright, the election went to a second round. This gave the…
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Iran Cracks Down On Social Media Accounts For ‘Discouraging’ Voting – Eurasia Review
Empty polling stations during the parliamentary elections in Iran. Photo Credit: PMOI By RFE RL (RFE/RL) — Iran has opened court cases against two Telegram accounts and summoned 100 people for allegedly calling for a boycott of the recent presidential election. Some 500 Instagram accounts were also found to have committed “election violations,” Iranian judiciary…
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Making sense of a proposed US-Saudi deal – Brookings Institution
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 20, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool. Editor’s note: This piece is part of the Center for Middle East Policy’s Israel-Gaza interviews series, in which leading experts unpack the conflict via in-depth Q&As. A proposed U.S. defense…
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Managed reform: What Iran’s new president means for European diplomacy
Masoud Pezeshkian is Iran’s new president-elect. This follows the second round of a surprise election held on Friday after the sudden death of former Iranian president, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi had entered into office in 2019, ushering in an incredibly rocky term for Iran’s domestic politics and relations with the West. Now Pezeshkian’s reform-minded…
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Guiding Light: The Clergy’s Role Beyond Politics in Elections
The Consequences of Political Discord An editorial posted in Hammihan Online noted that if asked two months ago about the short-term future, there would have been no clear horizon. For the medium term, anticipation was centered on the 1404 elections, which seemed bleak. Even following the helicopter crash, prospects remained uncertain. However, the editorial argued…
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Iranians voted for change, but just how much can get through?
A little-known reformist politician Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon by profession and former health minister, will be sworn in as Iran’s ninth president in early August. He will succeed the late former president, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May. The crash led to speculation that Raisi was assassinated, among other conspiracy…