With the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel threatening to tip into all-out war, Masoud Pezeshkian calls for diplomacy.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon who emerged from political backwoods this summer to beat a slew of hard-liners and become President of Iran, walked into the ornate ballroom of a New York hotel this week to meet the press. It was his American début. He was wearing a crisp white shirt under a dark suit. No tie. After the 1979 Revolution, the young theocracy banned neckties as a symbol of Western, notably U.S., influence. Pezeshkian had two layers of security—an élite Revolutionary Guard unit that protects Iran’s top officials and a U.S. Secret Service detail that escorts visiting heads of state, friend or foe, on trips to America. New York police officers in flak jackets were deployed outside the hotel.