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Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and lawmaker who has promised to reach out to the West has won the country’s presidential run-off election by beating Saeed Jalili, according to state media.
A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million after Friday’s election, the Associated Press reports.
Supporters of Pezeshkian entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn on Saturday to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, AP reports.
But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.
The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
