Masoud Pezeshkian

Masoud Pezeshkian (, ; born 29 September 1954) is an Iranian cardiac surgeon and reformist politician who is the president-elect of Iran.

Earlier, Pezeshkian represented Tabriz, Osku and Azarshahr electoral district in the Parliament of Iran, and also served as its First Deputy Speaker from 2016 to 2020. He was Minister of Health and Medical Education between 2001 and 2005 in the Government of Mohammad Khatami.

Pezeshkian was elected governor of Piranshahr and Naghadeh counties in West Azerbaijan province during the 1980s. He ran in the 2013 presidential election, but withdrew. He ran again in the 2021 election, but was unsuccessful.

For the 2024 election, Pezeshkian's candidacy was approved and on 5 July, he won the 2024 presidential election in a runoff with 54.76% of the popular vote. He is set to be inaugurated as president on 30 July. He will become the oldest person to take the office of President of Iran, at the age of 69 years.

Early life and education
Pezeshkian was born in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan, on 29 September 1954 to an Iranian Azerbaijani parents. In 1973, he received his diploma and moved to Zabol to serve his conscription duty. It was during this time that he became interested in medicine. After completing his service, he returned to his home province, where he entered medical school and graduated with a degree in general medicine. During the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), Pezeshkian frequently visited the front lines, where he was responsible for sending medical teams and working as a fighter and doctor. He finished his general practitioner course in 1985, and started teaching physiology at the medical college.

After the war, Pezeshkian continued his education, specializing in general surgery at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. In 1993, he received a subspecialty in cardiac surgery from Iran University of Medical Sciences. He later became a specialist in heart surgery, leading him to become president of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 1994, a position he held for five years.

Political career
Pezeshkian's political career began when he joined Mohammad Khatami's administration as Deputy Health Minister in 1997. He was appointed Health Minister four years later, serving from 2001 to 2005. Since then, he has been elected to the Iranian parliament five times, representing Tabriz, and served as the First Deputy Speaker of the parliament from 2016 to 2020.

On 6 July 2024, Pezeshkian was elected President after winning the 5 July run-off of the 2024 presidential election with 16.3 million votes (53.7%) to Saeed Jalili's 13.5 million (44.3%). He is scheduled to take the office of president on 30 July 2024.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Pezeshkian is a supporter of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and has called its current incarnation "different from the past". He condemned the declaration of the IRGC as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration in 2019. After the 2019 Iranian shoot-down of an American drone, Pezeshkian called the American government "terrorist" and described the IRGC's action to target the drone as "a strong punch to the mouths of the leaders of criminal America". During a university meeting and in response to some criticisms, Pezeshkian put on an IRGC uniform, and said that he would wear it again.

Anti-government protests
Pezeshkian has criticized the Iranian system multiple times. During the 2009 post-election protests, in a speech, Pezeshkian criticized the way the protesters were treated. In his speech, he mentioned the words of the first Shiite Imam [ Ali] addressed to Malik Ashtar not to treat people "like a wild animal".

Pezeshkian considered Iran's method of managing the 2018 protests as "scientifically and intellectually wrong". He blamed the country's system for all the events and said: "We should have done better." After the 2022 protests, Pezeshkian demanded the creation of an assessment and clarification team regarding the death of Mahsa Amini. Although he considered the way of dealing with the protesters and their trial to be contrary to the constitution and demanded that the defendants should get lawyers, he later issued a statement, condemned the protests and did not consider it to be in the people's interest.

Foreign policy
Pezeshkian has supported restarting discussions with the United States over the nuclear program of Iran, vowing to revive the agreement it reached with the U.S. and other world powers in 2015, in exchange for lifting the international sanctions against Iran.

He has supported building amicable relationships with all countries except for Israel, stating that Iran would keep supporting the "Axis of Resistance" against it.

Ethnic views
Pezeshkian emphasizes the rights of ethnic groups such as Azeris, Kurds, and Baluchis and states that the rights of these groups should be protected. He supports the implementation of Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution for all ethnicities. This principle says: "The official and common language and script of the people of Iran is Persian. Documents, correspondence, official texts and textbooks must be in this language and script, but the use of local and ethnic languages in the press and mass media and the teaching of their literature in schools is free, along with the Persian language." He argues that the implementation of this principle mitigates separatist and dissident motivations. Pezeshkian also supports teaching of the Azerbaijani language in Iranian schools.

Personal life
Pezeshkian's wife was a gynecologist. In 1993, she died along with their youngest son in a car crash. He raised his remaining two sons and daughter alone and has never remarried. His daughter, Zahra, has a master's degree in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology, and was working at Jam Petrochemical before the Rouhani government came to power. She is also regarded as a political adviser.

Pezeshkian is a teacher of the Quran, and reciter of the Nahj al-balagha, a key text for Shia Muslims.

In addition to Persian, Pezeshkian speaks many languages, including Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Arabic and English.

Pezeshkian is a fan of Tractor S.C.