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Iraq Doesn't Expect Major Changes with Pezeshkian’s Election as Iran’s President

A man holds up a poster of Iran's newly-elected president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on July 6, 2024. (AFP)
A man holds up a poster of Iran's newly-elected president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on July 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Iraq Doesn't Expect Major Changes with Pezeshkian’s Election as Iran’s President

A man holds up a poster of Iran's newly-elected president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on July 6, 2024. (AFP)
A man holds up a poster of Iran's newly-elected president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on July 6, 2024. (AFP)

Iraq welcomed on Saturday the election of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as president of Iran.

Officials congratulated him on his victory, calling for bolstering relations. Meanwhile, experts predicted little change in Iran’s policy towards Iraq given the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) influence over the file.

Pezeshkian won the runoff election on Saturday, defeating ultraconservative Saeed Jalili.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani congratulated Pezeshkian on his win, wishing him success and stressing the depth of relations between their countries.

He called for maintaining coordination at the highest levels in all fields to serve common interests.

Iraqi President Abdullatif Rashid congratulated Iran on the success of the elections and Pezeshkian on his victory. He stressed his keenness on boosting ties with Tehran.

President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Nechervan Barzani offered his congratulations, saying he was looking forward to developing “the old friendship and continuing joint cooperation with Iran based on joint interests and the principle of good neighborliness.”

Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani described Iran as an important neighbor to the Region and Iraq. He also said Erbil was keen on deepening relations with it.

Sudani’s advisor for international affairs Farhad Alaaldin said Pezeshkian’s time in office will be a “natural extension of the presidency of late President Ebrahim Raisi.”

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said Iraq looks to the “constants” in relations with Iran regardless of the people in power.

Raisi was planning on visiting Baghdad before he died. Iraq is now looking forward to Pezeshkian continuing what his predecessor was working on, he went on to say.

Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei has advised Pezeshkian to follow in Raisi’s footsteps.

Head of the Waey movement Salah al-Arbawi said the victory of a reformist candidate will lead to little change in policy in Iran. However, the election of a Republican American president, with a history with Iran, will lead to several changes in the region, he added in reference to Donald Trump.

Iraq is greatly affected by regional and international developments, he told Asharq Al-Awsat. “The rise of reformists in Iran and Trump’s expected victory is a double-edged sword.”

He added that Iraq does not have a full control over its “sovereign decision-making" and it is usually vulnerable to developments between Iran and the US, which demanded that authorities maintain a policy of disassociation.

Political science professor at the Al-Nahrain University Yassine Bakri said Iran’s foreign policy is shaped by several circles, but Khamenei ultimately has the final say, especially in strategic issues.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the IRGC primarily handles Iraqi affairs. The IRGC works a lot closer to Khamenei than the foreign ministry and president.

So, it doesn’t really matter whether a reformist or hardliner wins the presidency in Iran, he explained.

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Arab World

Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A packed concert hall in Damascus came alive this week with cheers as Wasfi Maasarani, a renowned singer and symbol of the Syrian uprising, performed in celebration of “Syria’s victory."
The concert Wednesday marked Maasarani’s return to Syria after 13 years of exile. While living in Los Angeles, Maasarani had continued to support Syria’s uprising through his music, touring the US and Europe, The Associated Press said.
The concert organized by the Molham Volunteering Team, a humanitarian organization founded by Syrian students, also marked a month since a lightning insurgency toppled former President Bashar Assad.
Revolutionary songs like those by Maasarani and Abdelbasset Sarout — a Syrian singer and activist who died in 2019 — played a key role in rallying Syrians during the nearly 14-year uprising-turned civil war starting in 2011.
Many opponents of Assad's rule, like Maasarani, had fled the country and were unsure if they would ever be able to come back.
In the dimly lit concert hall, the crowd’s phone lights flickered like stars, swaying in unison with the music as the audience sang along, some wiping away tears. The crowd cheered and whistled and many waved the new Syrian flag, the revolutionary flag marked by three stars. A banner held up in the hall read, “It is Syria the Great, not Syria the Assad.”
One of Maasarani's best known songs is “Jabeenak ’Ali w Ma Bintal,” which he first sang in 2012, addressing the Free Syrian Army. It was a coalition of defected Syrian military personnel and civilian fighters formed in 2011 to oppose Assad during the civil war.
“You free soldier, the Syrian eminence appears in his eyes, he refused to fire at his people, he refused the shame of the traitor army, long live you free army, protect my people and the revolutionaries,” the lyrics read.
Another banner in the audience read, “It is the revolution of the people and the people never fail.”
Between performances, Raed Saleh, the head of the civil defense organization known as the White Helmets, addressed the crowd, saying, “With this victory, we should not forget the families who never found their children in the prisons and detention centers.”
Thousands were tortured or disappeared under Assad’s government. After the fall of Assad, the White Helmets helped in the search for the missing.
After the concert, Maasarani told The Associated Press, “It’s like a dream” to return to Syria and perform his revolutionary songs.
“We were always singing them outside of Syria, experiencing the happy and sad moments from afar,” he said, adding that his role was to capture the atrocities on the ground through song, ensuring “they would be remembered in history.” He reflected on his years in exile and recalled surviving two assassination attempts before leaving Syria.
“We have not seen this state without Assad since I was born,” said Alaa Maham, a concert attendee who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. “I cannot describe my feelings, I hope our happiness lasts.”
The future of Syria is still unclear, as the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, now the de facto ruling party, begins to form a new government and rebuild the country's institutions.
Whatever comes next, Maham said, “We got rid of the oppression and corruption with the fall of Assad and his family’s rule."