Iran’s president-elect, a relative moderate who beat a hardline rival to win election but who will likely be constrained in how much change he can effect, urged Iranians on Saturday to stick with him on “the difficult road ahead”.
The sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, Masoud Pezeshkian won Friday’s run-off presidential vote against former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
He will replace hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
A 69-year-old cardiac surgeon, Pezeshkian, has pledged 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.
However many Iranians are sceptical about his ability to fulfil his campaign promises as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not the president, is the ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic.