Iran's new president pledges to 'extend hand of friendship'

Tehran [Iran], July 7: Reformist candidate and heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian has won Iran's presidential election after beating his ultra-conservative rival Saeed Jalili in a run-off vote.
Iran's electoral authority said on Saturday that Pezeshkian, a former health minister, received 53.7 percent of the votes cast to the 44.3 percent won by Jalili, a former top government nuclear negotiator.
State television showed images of supporters celebrating the 69-year-old Pezeshkian's win by honking their car horns in the early hours of the morning.
"We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone," said Pezeshkian in his first remarks, emphasizing that he would work with his political opponents "for the advancement of the country." Jalili did not immediately comment on the election results.
Pezeshkian ran a low-key campaign calling for renewed trust between the government and Iranians, many of whom have become disillusioned with politics after failed attempts at reform, political repression and an economic crisis. But in view of the complex political situation and powerful interest groups in Iran, it is unclear to what extent Pezeshkian can affect significant change.
Yet his win - and the low voter turnout - showed the discontent many Iranians feel towards their leaders. Some 61 million people were eligible to vote for a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.
Friday's run-off vote pitted Pezeshkian and Jalili against each other after none of the candidates gained an absolute majority in the first round on June 28.
Polling stations were to close at 6pm on Friday. As expected, authorities allowed them to stay open later in many places, but voter turnout still only stood at about 49.8 percent, according to the electoral authority. In the first round last week turnout was a record low 40 percent.
Conservative reformer Pezeshkian, a trained heart surgeon from north-western Iran who served in the army during the Gulf War, practised for years in the city of Tabriz.
In the early 1990s, he lost his wife and one of his sons in a road accident. He often appeared at his campaign rallies with his daughter and grandchild.
Source: Qatar Tribune