By Nohad Topalian | 2024-08-01

BEIRUT -- Though he is being hailed as a reformist, Iran's new president Masoud Pezeshkian has signaled he intends to continue the Islamic Republic's foreign policy and expansionist project in the region, political writers said.

Pezeshkian made this clear with his July 9 declaration to Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah of his commitment to continue supporting the Lebanese terrorist group as well as other proxies such as Hamas.

In so doing, he confirmed that the Iranian regime does not care about the Iranian people or the peoples of the region, which it has plunged into various wars -- among them, the conflict Hamas initiated with Israel that has widened to include Hizbullah.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) media statements from 2022 to date confirm that the regime backs Hamas and that Hizbullah, Hamas and other Iranian proxies are working to serve the Islamic Republic.

"Iran's support of Hizbullah and surreptitious support of Hamas did not stop for a moment" after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and later turned into open support, political writer Anthony Geagea told Pishtaz.

Iranian foreign policy has dragged the region into wars "since the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution, demonstrating it pays no mind to the suffering of the peoples of the region," he said.

This comes as no surprise, however, as the Iranian regime has shown disregard for its own people time and again.

While the regime spends an increasing amount on the IRGC, the budget allocated to the public is shrinking every year, and it doesn't seem like things will change under Pezeshkian's presidency.

Grievances sparked by the free fall of the currency, inflation, unemployment and economic uncertainty led to widespread protests against the regime in 2017 and 2019.

Government retirees and workers sporadically gather in protest in different cities to raise their concerns about low and unpaid wages.

Two sides of one coin

Pezeshkian's election to the Iranian presidency came "as a green light" from Iranian leader Ali Khamenei to project Iran's moderate face, Geagea said.

"Pezeshkian's announcement of his country's support of Hizbullah and Iran's proxies confirms that he is not the decider of Iranian policy but rather the implementer of Khamenei's dictates," he said.

By recruiting regional affiliates, the Iranian regime "reached Israel's borders from Lebanon through Hizbullah, and in Gaza through Hamas," he said.

It has sought to open a third front with Jordan as well, Geagea added.

The new Iranian president "hid behind the word 'reformist' to show Iran's reformist face to the West," political writer Tony Boulos told Pishtaz.

"But it became clear that both the reformist and the extremist are arms of al-Wali al-Faqih (Guardian Jurist -- Iranian leader Ali Khamenei)."

The Iranian regime created the Quds Force and its affiliates to serve its expansionist project and dominate the region, he said.

"Hizbullah, Hamas and those who revolve in the orbit of the 'axis of resistance' are soldiers of al-Wali al-Faqih, and they threaten the entire region, not just Israel," Boulos said.