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The White House said Monday it isn’t ready to resume nuclear talks or soften its stance on Iran after its voters elected a reformist candidate for president over the hard-line option in Friday’s national elections.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby offered a blunt, “no,” when asked whether Masoud Pezeshkian’s election will change the U.S. negotiating position.
Mr. Pezeshkian, a cardiologist and former health minister, pledged to reach out to the West and tone down the mandatory headscarf rule for women, though the U.S. says not enough has changed in the Islamic Republic overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“They’re still supporting terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. They’re still supporting the Houthis as the Houthis attack ships in the Red Sea. They’re still attacking shipping as well. And they’re still supplying drones and drone technology and drone expertise to the Russians so that the Russians can continue to kill innocent Ukrainians like they did over the weekend,” Mr. Kirby said. “So no, no.”
“We’ll see what this guy wants to get done but we are not expecting any changes in Iranian behavior,” Mr. Kirby said.
Mr. Pezeshkian was declared the winner after Friday’s election, with 16.3 million votes compared to Saeed Jalili’s 13.5 million, according to wire services. He is replacing the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in May in a helicopter crash.
The result followed mass protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was detained for an alleged violation of Iran’s headscarf rules. The election also coincided with tension in the Middle East over Israel’s war on Hamas militants in Gaza and Tehran’s proxy support for terrorist groups.
The new president, an ethnic Azeri from western Iran, has repeatedly pledged his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and in one of his first actions after winning the election visited the tomb of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution that established Iran’s theocratic government.
Mr. Pezeshkian has also pledged to preserve Iran’s hard line against Israel, ruling out any rapprochement with Israel even as he talks of opening Iran to the West and the global economy.
“The Islamic Republic has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime,” Mr. Pezeshkian said in a message to Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group now engaged in a low-level border war with Israel even as the Israeli-Hamas war grinds on in Gaza.
But other regional states have reached out to the new Iranian president, who brings a sharp change in style and tone to his predecessor, President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-liner killed in a helicopter crash in May. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the new president on his win, and Saudi Arabian de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke of his “keenness to develop and deepen the relations that bring our two countries and peoples together.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz interpreted the victory of the only moderate in the field of conservatives as a sign popular discontent is growing against the regime inside Iran.
“The people of Iran have sent a clear message of demand for change and opposition to the Ayatollah regime through the elections,” Mr. Katz wrote on social media. “Now the world must designate the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] as a terrorist organization and demand the cancellation of [Iran’s] nuclear program and the cessation of support for terrorist organizations.”
• David R. Sands contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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