Mick Hartley

I posted a few days back about the new supposedly reformist Iranian president – "there is NO reform with the Islamic Republic". Now here's Jason Brodsky at the JC – Don’t fall for the spin that Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is a reformer:

Pezeshkian is a career Islamic Republic loyalist. He has boasted of his role in promoting forced hijab in the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and rose through the ranks of Iran’s medical system because of his adherence to its hardline ideological mores. While at times criticising the Iranian system’s response to a variety of crises — for example the murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022 — which have won him the misleading moniker of “reformist,” he has never defected or departed from Tehran’s party line: adherence to the supreme leader’s rule and the founding precepts of the Islamic Republic….

Khamenei is looking for individuals he can control. And Khamenei would never have allowed Pezeshkian to run if there was a risk of him being a true wild card. Pezeshkian hits a sweet spot for Khamenei as he is untested, unknown on the international stage and carries the brand of being a “reformist” which could prove useful in creating fissures in the international community to neutralise pressure campaigns….

In the end, these narratives serve Iran’s interests. The portrayal of the Islamic Republic’s political system as a cosmic battle between enlightened moderates versus dour conservatives provides an accessible way for Westerners, particularly liberals, to project their own domestic political debates onto a hostile and subversive foreign state. Some promoters of this thinking believe it provides a “nuanced” view of Iran. But in the end it warps sobre policymaking and provides a deeply distorted window into a deeply predatory and irredeemable regime.

Also:

Iran's President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday reaffirmed Tehran's dedication to destroying Israel, saying its proxies across the region will not allow the Jewish state's "criminal policies" to continue.

"The Islamic Republic has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime. The support of the resistance is rooted in the fundamental policies of the Islamic Republic," Pezeshkian wrote in a missive to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"I am certain that the resistance movements in the region will not allow this regime to continue its warmongering and criminal policies against the oppressed people of Palestine and other nations of the region," Iranian media quoted the supposed reformer president as saying.