The first televised debate organized as part of the Iranian presidential election, scheduled for June 28, was sluggish, slow and without momentum, like the campaign, which began in recent days, following the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi in a helicopter accident on May 20.
Monday June 17, for four hours, the six candidates, validated by the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, an unelected constitutional body, spoke about the Iranian economy and its difficulties, while inflation reached 52%, between March 2023 and March 2024, a figure not seen since 1943. Among the candidates in the running, none really got to the heart of the matter. Diplomacy and in particular international sanctions, reimposed after the unilateral exit of the United States from the agreement on Tehran’s nuclear file, decided by the former American president, Republican Donald Trump, in 2018, hung over this first debate. . Four more are planned.
Hastily organized after the disappearance of Mr. Raïssi, this election takes place in a very tense regional context, on the sidelines of the war that Israel is waging in Gaza. Among the six candidates in the running, five belong to the conservative camp. The sixth, Masoud Pezeshkian, represents the reform camp, largely sidelined and marginalized by the regime in recent years. Among those disqualified is the former head of parliament, Ali Larijani, who has become one of the bugbears of the hard wing of the regime for his more open approach to the West.
During this debate, Masoud Pezeshkian, health minister during the second term of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), described the sanctions as “disasters”suggesting his desire, if he were president, to bring to fruition indirect negotiations with the Americans to reach a compromise on the Iranian nuclear issue. “Circumventing sanctions is possible, but some people get rich doing this”said this professional surgeon, in an allusion to certain people close to the regime, who pocket astronomical sums by continuing to trade abroad.
“Looking East”
For his part, the current mayor of Tehran, the conservative Alireza Zakani, faithful to the line of his camp, has minimized the effects of the sanctions, placing emphasis on the country’s internal capacities. “We must neutralize the sanctions internally and then move towards diplomacy”did he declare.
The former mayor of Tehran and current head of parliament, the conservative Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, adopted a more measured approach, recognizing the deleterious impact of sanctions on the Iranian economy, while emphasizing the benefits of alliances allowing Iran to place itself as a counterpoint to an international order dominated by the West. He estimated that “to attract foreign investments, we should keep an eye on the potential offered to us by the BRICS group [Brésil, Russie, Inde, Chine et Afrique du Sud, auxquels s’ajoutent depuis janvier l’Égypte, les Émirats arabes unis et l’Éthiopie] and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [qui réunit les principales puissances asiatiques] “, two groups that Tehran has just joined. This “look to the east” is one of the policies favored by the Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, and the conservative camp. Since 2018, the moderate and reformist camp, in favor of opening towards the West, has been weakened.
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