The sole reformist candidate in Iran’s presidential elections this month has said he wants improved relations with the US, as he accused his conservative rivals of blighting the Iranian economy by not doing enough to revive the a nuclear deal with the west that had led to the lifting of some sanctions.
Masoud Pezeshkian, who has unveiled the combative former foreign minster Javad Zarif as his foreign policy adviser, also suggested under his presidency he might also review its relations with Russia, arguing eastern powers should not think that they are Iran’s only option.
Pezeshkian, a former heart surgeon and health minister, is battling to win over millions of Iranians who believe that despite being allowed to stand in the vote, he would not be permitted by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to take the country on a new course in the event he won.
His deployment of Zarif is intended to symbolise how much Iran’s approach to foreign policy, including the need to reach a deal about its nuclear programme, could change if he wins the elections. The west is increasingly worried that Iran’s leadership is willing to press ahead with building a nuclear bomb.
Zarif joined Pezeshkian on the campaign trail in Isfahan, urging disenchanted voters not to boycott the poll on 28 June “Not voting is not a message, and not voting is giving power to the minority, and it is this minority that is leading Iran to dire circumstances,” he said.
Many in Iran have turned away from politics and turnout at parliamentary elections in March fell to a record low amid calls for a boycott.
Pezeshkian’s five rival candidates – all conservatives – have accused him of offering a third term of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, whose diplomatic and economic strategy was upended by Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal and impose maximum sanctions pressure on Iran.
Concern that the reformist might do well enough to force a runoff has led to speculation that at least two of the five candidates will quit before the poll.
Zarif, speaking at hustings on Tuesday alongside Pezeshkian, said a revival of the nuclear deal had been planned in the first sixth months of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021, but was prevented by Israel’s assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and the decision of Iran’s parliament to pass a law that obliged Iran to break the deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
He also claimed Trump had withdrawn from the nuclear deal because the only country that benefited from it was Iran, adding in the first two years of the agreement Iran enjoyed single-digit inflation and interest rates as sanctions were eased.
Pezeshkian insisted it was necessary for Iran to open its doors for foreign investment to help it to reach a target of 8% growth. In a four-hour TV debate on the economy on Monday, he said China was not investing in Iran due to it being blacklisted by the international Financial Action Task Force as he attempted to link economic failure at home with the country’s political isolation.
Pezeshkian has attempted to persuade young people, releasing a 27-minute video of him debating with one group who tell him they are studying to leave the country since Iran cannot be saved by democracy. He drew scorn at one event for telling a Tehran students’ meeting that his reason for standing was to encourage people to vote, and therefore dispel the view of the international community that Iranians do not vote due to their opposition to the regime.
The secretary of the Islamic Association at Sharif University criticised Pezeshkian. “You see yourself as a doctor who has come to give artificial respiration to the lifeless body of democracy; whereas this body is on its way not to the treatment room, but to the cemetery,” he said.
He has not come out against the compulsory hijab, but has criticised its enforcement, saying: “You cannot implement a thought by force. What I believe as a human being is to serve people. This method will not go anywhere and we should not hate each other. As much as I can, I will stop the guidance patrols.”
His campaign has been criticised for using the song For…, composed by Shervin Hajipour during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. The song became the anthem of the nationwide movement after going viral on social media with tens of millions of views.
Hajipour was subsequently arrested and sentenced to prison on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “inciting disturbances” through the song.
No reliable polls have been published but Pezeshkian’s two main conservative rivals are thought to be the former Revolutionary Guards commander and current parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, and the former nuclear chief negotiator Saeed Jalili. Ghalibaf, presenting himself as a strongman, is widely believed to be Khamenei’s favoured candidate although this is denied.
Ghalibaf has been forced to order his daughter to give a TV interview denying she went on an extravagant shopping trip to Turkey.