https://www.frontpagemag.com/dont-be-fooled-by-irans-bogus-election-of-a-puppet-president/
As Robert Spencer stated earlier on Jihad Watch: “No one can run for the presidency of Iran without Khamenei’s approval.” Iran’s constitutional body, the Guardian Council, has confirmed the victory of so-called “reformist” Masoud Pezeshkian, who will now succeed the late hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, but expect little change.
Elections in Iran are hardly democratic. The Supreme Leader, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Guardian Council disqualify any contender for the presidency who may be deemed a threat to the regime.
The outcome of a presidential election reveals Iran’s strategic direction. Pezeshkian serves to potentially pacify domestic and international threats via his diplomatic demeanor. The Iranian regime faces international disapproval of its brazen hardline approach as it moves toward developing a nuclear bomb; Western scrutiny over its ongoing war against the State of Israel by means of its proxies; and the ongoing threat of a potential uprising by fierce anti-regime dissidents, even as the Iranian government dismisses such a threat.
The Associated Press describes Pezeshkian as a “reformist politician within Iran’s Shiite theocracy — always pushing for change but never radically challenging the system overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” That’s because Pezeshkian is a pawn of the regime and has its approval.