Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran’s pres­i­den­tial runoff elec­tion, best­ing hard-lin­er Jalili

DUBAI, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (AP) — Reformist can­di­date Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff pres­i­den­tial elec­tion Sat­ur­day, best­ing hard-lin­er Saeed Jalili by promis­ing to reach out to the West and ease enforce­ment on the country’s manda­to­ry head­scarf law after years of sanc­tions and protests squeez­ing the Islam­ic Repub­lic.
Pezeshkian promised no rad­i­cal changes to Iran’s Shi­ite theoc­ra­cy in his cam­paign and long has held Supreme Leader Aya­tol­lah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all mat­ters of state in the coun­try. But even Pezeshkian’s mod­est aims will be chal­lenged by an Iran­ian gov­ern­ment still large­ly held by hard-lin …