No time for political revanchism
By Mehdi
Ebrahim
Staff writer
Having scored a scintillating home run in the presidential election on July 5, veteran heart surgeon-cum-parliamentarian Masoud Pezeshkian was catapulted from relative obscurity to presidency, officially treading on an uncharted territory cluttered with factional rivalries and political acts of obstructionism.
In the run-up to the vote and during the televised debates and nationwide campaigns, which were dismally imbued with sloganeering, the self-acknowledged Conservative but Reformist-leaning Pezeshkian was vehemently bashed over unsubstantiated claims of having affiliation to former chief executives, Moderate Hassan Rouhani and Ultra-Reformist Mohammad Khatami.
The 69-year-old bore the brunt of running a third administration of the two ex-presidents while on numerous occasions categorically dismissed the accusations.
Piggybacking on Pezeshkian’s reticence and calm disposition, his rivals labelled his supporting associates in his campaigns as “self-deprecating” and claimed that their prescribed domestic and foreign policies would be a repeat of what the Iranian public went through during more than 16 years of Rouhani’s and Khatami’s tenure, in which economic indicators — beset by Western sanctions — were much to be frowned upon.
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