Why Iran’s Establishment Let a Reformist Become President

It has a calculated reason for allowing a moderate candidate to win election.

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For the first time in nearly a generation, Iran has elected a reformist who is not a cleric as president. But Masoud Pezeshkian’s victory doesn’t change the fact that the country’s political establishment is dominated by ultraconservatives, and that it was they who allowed him to run in the first place. The Guardian Council, which […]

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Kamran Bokhari
Kamran Bokhari, PhD, is a regular contributor to and former senior analyst (2015-2018) with Geopolitical Futures. Dr. Bokhari is now the Senior Director, Eurasian Security & Prosperity Portfolio at the New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy in Washington, DC. Dr. Bokhari is also a national security and foreign policy specialist at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute. He has served as the Coordinator for Central Asia Studies at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Kamran Bokhari