I think in Iran, conservative has a whole different meaning.
This is like calling the Nazis “conservative”. They are extremists. They are stone-age radicals who came to power through revolution, violently broke with Iran’s 2500 year old past, and replaced it with a mix of socialism and islamism with a third-worldist bent. There is nothing conservative about it, even for Iranian standards, except one argues that keeping “status quo” per se is conservative. One might argue that it is moot, since even many Iranians call this “conservative” and given the changed political atmosphere post-1979. However if there is any element among Iranians that would be justly considered conservative it ought to be the Monarchists. Well, I don’t want to get carried away with that argument, but IMO the media’s use of conservative to describe the regime in Iran should raise eyebrow nonetheless.