Iran's presidential elections concluded on July 5, with Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian emerging as the president-elect of the Islamic Republic, securing 53% of the vote. While his mandate may seem weak in the face of powerful opponents, there is potential for significant change under his leadership.
Many Iranians were shocked to learn that his main opponent in the race, hard-liner Saeed Jalili, had a role in blocking Iran's joining of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a fact revealed during the televised debates preceding the elections. The FATF is a Paris-based global watchdog that develops policies to combat money laundering.
Jalili, who in the past styled himself the head of Iran's shadow cabinet, is officially Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in the National Security Council. It was Jalili's third time running for president. As a member of the National Security Council, he organized the opposition to approving the FATF in 2016 and successfully blocked its passage. He told Hassan Rouhani’s minister of justice, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, that he did not trust Rouhani, then the president of the Islamic Republic and head of the National Security Council.
Iranians paid billions of dollars for Jalili’s obstruction. Rejecting the FATF meant a continuation of the uncertainty surrounding Iranian banks and their ability to access the global banking system. As Iranian officials and businesses tried to implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated and signed by the Rouhani administration, the lack of connections to international banking proved a major handicap. Jalili’s success in blocking Iran from joining the FATF also scared away any potential foreign investors, as it signaled that the Islamic Republic was not supporting JCPOA wholeheartedly as a regime.
