US says Iran's elections won't impact its approach to Tehran

The Iranian elections will not have a major impact on the Biden administration's approach to Iran, a US State Department spokesperson told Iran International on Saturday, a day after moderate Masoud Pezeshkian won the country's run-off presidential vote.

"The elections will not have a significant impact on our approach to Iran... Our concerns about Iran’s behavior are unchanged. At the same time, we remain committed to diplomacy when it advances American interests," the spokesperson said.

The first round of Iran's snap presidential election saw a voter turnout of 39.92%, the lowest in the history of the Islamic Republic. In the runoff votes, the official figures show a 10-percent rise in the number of voters, but still over 50 percent of eligible voters boycotted the election.

"The elections in Iran were not free or fair. As a result, a significant number of Iranians chose not to participate at all," the US State Department spokesperson said. "We have no expectation these elections will lead to fundamental change in Iran’s direction or more respect for the human rights of its citizens."

Several Iranian opposition figures have called on Western powers not to engage with the new government of Iran.

Iran's exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi on Saturday referred to the election as the Islamic Republic's "fraudulent" attempt to legitimize its dictatorship.

In his first post-election speech on Saturday, Pezeshkian thanked Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and said "If it wasn't for him, I don't think my name would have easily come out of these (ballot) boxes."

During his election campaign, Pezeshkian had pledged to his supporters that he would implement the policies set by Khamenei.

He said in one of the televised debate that the U.S. must fulfill all its commitments for Iran to return to the the nuclear deal, known as JCPOA.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to reduce its nuclear capabilities in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. In 2018, Trump pulled out of the deal and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Tehran.