Ayatollah Khamenei Endorses Pezeshkian as President, Warns Against Factionalism

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially endorsed Masoud Pezeshkian as president Sunday July 28. As opposed to previous presidential inaugurations, when an official from the supreme leader’s office handed his endorsement decree to the president-elect, Khamenei personally handed over the signed decree to Pezeshkian. However, such aberrations as the removal of the intermediary and Khamenei’s encouraging words about cooperation among the three powers of the state and warnings against factionalism are not likely to herald new dynamics in Iranian politics. Pezeshkian’s honeymoon in office will most likely come to an abrupt end as soon as he presents his cabinet ministers to the Parliament, which is politically and philosophically opposed to the president.   

• July 28: Addressing an assembled group of civilian and military leaders, representatives of social classes and guilds, members of the families of martyrs, and foreign ambassadors, Khamenei, endorsing Pezeshkian as president, according to his official website said:  
  • “The Parliament must help the Cabinet, and the Cabinet must be aware of the political sensitivities of the Parliament. The Judiciary too must be active in any field needed … the meetings of the heads of the three powers of the state provide good opportunities to exchange views on different subjects and must be taken seriously.” 
  • Turning to priorities, Khamenei said: “I am most sensitive to cultural and social issues, but, right now, economic issues have priority.” 
  • Regarding the political atmosphere in Iran, Khamenei warned: “Now that the election is over, no one must fall for the temptation of polarizing politics … One person getting the vote and another not getting the vote should not lead to conflicts, create a wedge and factionalism.” 
  • Commenting on foreign policy, Khamenei said: “One of the priorities in foreign policy is our relations with African and Asian countries, which expand the arena of Iran’s diplomacy … Now that we are not mentioning European countries as priorities, it does not mean our opposition to them or enmity against them. But their behavior toward Iran has not been good in affairs such as sanctions, oil, and fallacious subjects, such as human rights. If they do not engage in such a behavior, they too will become our priority. However, there are a couple of countries whose harassment of us and hostility toward us we shall not forget.” 
• July 28: Pezeshkian said, as quoted by the official website of the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the presidential inauguration ceremony:  
  • “I’m nothing but the soil under the feet of the honorable and magnanimous Iranian nation, which put the burden of responsibility upon the shoulders of this unworthy servant … Those who voted for me, those who voted for the rival candidates, or those, who out of concerns and critique and protest did not vote, expect change from me and from the future Cabinet. Now, the time has come for me to be held responsible.”  
  • Turning to Khamenei, Pezeshkian said: “I’m begging the supreme leader of the revolution and the great Iranian nation … to come to my aid to lessen some of the sufferings and concerns of the people of Iran.”  
• July 28: According to the official website of the presidency of the Islamic Republic or Iran, Pezeshkian appointed Mohammad Reza Aref as his first vice president.  

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