New president, same Iran

Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a former minister of health, is not, as Western press reports imply, a liberal reformer. His election is another false dawn. The 45-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran portends that Pezeshkian, 69, will not meaningfully change Iran’s internal or external conduct, challenge the authority of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, restore the regime’s lost legitimacy or pacify popular discontent.