Iran's stance on Israel remains unchanged under reformist president Pezeshkian - opinion

When it comes to Iran’s attitude toward the State of Israel, little has changed since they elected a reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who was born to an Azerbaijani mother. Iran is still a staunch supporter of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Syria’s President Bashar Assad, and the Houthis in Yemen, which are all enemies of Israel. This means that Iran remains an existential threat to the State of Israel, despite the election of a reformist president. 

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Pezeshkian stressed that Iran would continue to support the “resistance” in the region against the “illegitimate Zionist regime” and that this support was the basis of its policy. He said he was confident that the “resistance” in the region would not allow Israel to continue its “warlike and criminal” policy against the Palestinian people and the other peoples of the region. 

In a letter to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Pezeshkian wrote that the Islamic Republic was committed to the principle of support for the Palestinian people and its struggle against the “occupation and apartheid of the Zionist regime” and regarded that as its humane and Islamic duty. He added that Iran would continue to fully support the Palestinian people until all their rights were realized and Jerusalem was liberated – and that he was certain that the fighters of the Palestinian resistance would win the current war.

Dialogue with the West

However, when it comes to other issues, there is potential for a slight change, provided that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei permits it. Pezeshkian supports a constructive dialogue with the West and wants Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. He is against using force to impose the compulsory hijab rule and lamented the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish girl who was murdered while in Iranian custody. Her death had sparked nationwide protests calling for “women, life, and freedom.” 

There are commentators who claim that Iran under Pezeshkian is expected to distance itself from Armenia, which formerly served as one of Iran’s proxies in the region. As evidence, they cite the fact that Pezeshkian speaks Azerbaijani as a mother tongue, always advocated for the recognition of the Turkic peoples’ cultural rights in Iran, and is a fan of the Tabriz football team Tractor.

Nevertheless, Iran has other Azerbaijani leaders, such as Khamenei. However, this did not prevent Iran from being close to Armenia, which is Azerbaijan’s enemy. Iran’s supreme leader was born and raised far away from Azerbaijan, but he does speak Azerbaijani and calls for the preservation of Azerbaijani language and culture. However, at the same time, under his leadership Armenia was a strategic ally of Iran. 

It should also be noted that in the 1980s, the Azerbaijani Khamenei was president, and its prime minister, Mir-Houssein Mousavi, was also Azerbaijani. The leader of Iran’s opposition, Mehdi Barzagan, was also Azerbaijani, yet this did not lead to Iran having enlightened policies toward Iran’s Azerbaijani community in the long run. Azerbaijanis were still linguistically oppressed and persecuted, deprived of the right to speak their mother tongue at school and work. Azerbaijanis who protested against this were systematically arrested and tortured. This is because the structure of government in Iran encourages Persian hegemony and the repression of ethnic minorities, even when a reformist leader is in power. 

Despite the recent election of a reformist president, the Iranian regime has executed at least 266 prisoners across the country in the first half of 2024, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported this week. Of the executed prisoners, 72 were Kurdish, 42 were Turkish, 32 were Baloch, 23 were from Afghanistan, 10 were women, and even one child defendant was executed by the Islamic Republic. According to the report, 10 prisoners were executed for charges of political and religious activities, including espionage for Israel. 

It should be noted that Azerbaijan views Iran’s election of an Azerbaijani president as a positive development and has now restored the functioning of its embassy in Tehran. This should positively influence the Azerbaijani community in Iran. 

Iran and Azerbaijan's complex relationship

Under the previous Iranian government, relations between Tehran and Baku were very tense, after the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran was attacked on International Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2023. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev called it a “terror attack.” 

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran further deteriorated after Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Israel in March 2023. Iran’s previous president, Ebrahim Raisi, perished in a helicopter crash after meeting Azerbaijan’s president, which made many fear that tensions between Baku and Tehran would be even greater.

However, after the election of Pezeshkian, this did not occur. People in Baku are now cautiously optimistic, as they know that even though Pezeshkian is a reformist who is half Azerbaijani, and has made very liberal statements related to women and minorities during his campaign, the system in Tehran is still repressive and no reformist is permitted to implement true reform. The recent calls against Israel by the Iranian regime highlight this point.

The writer is a prominent Middle East scholar and commentator.