Pezeshkian won Friday’s election with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million, according to a vote tally released by authorities.
 "Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran presidential runoff election, beating Jalili")
Bloomberg
By Arsalan Shahra and Gornal Motevalli
Massoud Pezeshkian, a reformist politician who supports restoring Iran’s nuclear deal and improving ties with the West, was elected president of the Islamic Republic in a runoff election, state television announced.
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He beat hardline politician Said Jalili, a longtime critic of the nuclear deal and foe of the United States, by about three million votes, according to Saturday’s vote count.
Turnout in the runoff election was slightly higher than in last week’s first round, which pitted Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon and former health minister, against Islamist ideologue Jalili.
The election comes at a time of turmoil and conflict gripping the Middle East, with unprecedented opposition to Iran’s ruling clerical regime. Pezeshkian’s most immediate challenges will be improving Iran’s economy, which is under heavy sanctions, and addressing public opposition to the country’s draconian social laws, which sparked a 2022 uprising against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He also faces the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House after the US presidential election in November. Trump’s foreign policy during his term from 2017 to 2021 was characterised by a hostile “maximum pressure” strategy that destabilised the Persian Gulf, rattled oil markets and came close to bringing about direct war with Iran.
It was President Trump who withdrew from the nuclear deal agreed to by his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
The election was held after the death of conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May. Jalili was a strong supporter of Raisi, and Pezechkian’s election as president is likely to mark a major shift from his predecessor’s very hardline stance toward the United States.
