Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and lawmaker, has won Iran’s presidential run-off election, defeating Saeed Jalili.

Pezeshkian, who has pledged to improve relations with the West, received 53.3 percent of the over 30 million votes cast. Jalili garnered 44.3 percent.

The election took place following the death of the previous President, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash in May.

Masoud Pezeshkian, born in the Kurdish-majority city of Mahabad in West Azerbaijan Province, is fluent in Kurdish and Azeri.

During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, he served as both a soldier and a medic, later specialising in cardiac surgery.

In 1993, Pezeshkian’s wife, a gynecologist, and one of their children died in a car accident. He raised their remaining three children on his own and has not remarried.

Pezeshkian entered politics after university, moving to Tehran in the 2000s to become health minister under President Mohammad Khatami. He ran for president in 2013 but withdrew without endorsing any candidate.

Pezeshkian has criticised Iran’s hijab-enforcement policies, warning in 2023 that they were making people resent religion.

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