Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist candidate, emerges victorious in Iran's presidential election

Pezeshkian has offered comments suggesting he wants better relations with the West, a return to the atomic accord and less enforcement of the hijab law. However, he has said he would “try to have friendly relations with all countries except Israel.” Pezeshkian was born September 29, 1954, in Mahabad in northwestern Iran to an Azeri father and a Kurdish mother. He speaks Azeri and has long focused on the affairs of Iran’s vast minority ethnic groups. Like many, he served in the Iran-Iraq war, sending medical teams to the battlefront. He became a heart surgeon and served as the head of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.