But to revive the economy, Mr. Pezeshkian will have to work to reach a deal with the United States to lift the sanctions on its oil revenues and banking transactions. Despite U.S. efforts, Iran is not isolated internationally and has forged close ties with Russia, China and India. But the sanctions do impede its economic growth and trade.
Could Iran improve relations with the West?
Framing foreign policy as an economic issue, Mr. Pezeshkian has said he is willing to negotiate with Western powers, namely the United States, to remove the sanctions on Iran. He has also expressed a willingness to resume nuclear negotiations — which are interlocked with the sanctions — and to generally defuse tensions.
“Whoever ends its relations with the world will be held back. Why should we be fighting with the whole world?” Mr. Pezeshkian told Iranian media during the election campaign.
This is in stark contrast to his rival, Mr. Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator who opposed Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with international powers for making too many concessions. During his presidential campaign, he also rejected any accommodation with the West, and instead sought to build stronger ties with Russia and China.
Under Mr. Raisi, the prior president, Iran continued to develop its missile arsenal, and its nuclear program kept advancing, reaching the status of a nuclear threshold state, with a breakout time of a week to build a simple nuclear bomb, experts say. The country also become an increasingly powerful but unpredictable player in the Middle East crisis.
