hassan rouhani elected new president of Iran.

[Sasha]

Just in, Hassan Rouhani, a cleric but considered the most progressive of all 5 candidates, got elected in the first round (so with more than 50%) : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Rouhani
Esp his massive support he gathered is interesting, curious how he will position himself with such a base.

[Paul Pott]

Interesting. He ran a populist campaign to better the average Iranian's economic situation and so on, but what can he do? The Supreme Leader isn't going to allow too much progressive reform. And, after all, he is a member of the clergy.

Wasn't Ahmadinejad originally supposed to be a reformist as well?

[Sasha]

No, he was a populist but on a conservative platform, his only "break" was that he was no cleric. Ahmadinejad was and to an extend remained an ineffective outsider for that reason though, rouhani is close to both khatami and Rafsanjani who have, despite being considered "opposition" figures serious influence in both politics and the clergy.
Short of a real uprising reform in Iran will come subtly through the clergy it is generally thought.

[Sasha]

Also Ahmadinejad was in his first term ellected with only 62% in the seccond round and probably stole his second term, rouhani is elected now with a clear majority against 4 other candidates, something Khamenei can't ignore.
Not to say anything good will come from him but its interesting anyway, esp considering Iran's decisive role in the Syrian civil war.

[Paul Pott]

Seems to me like he will enact certain watered down reforms but generally stick to the path dictated by the leader.

[GerrardWinstanley]

I didn't expect his foreign policy to be much of a departure from Ahmadinejad's and it appears I've been (somewhat) proven right (http://www.aawsat.net/2013/06/article55305525), Iran's self-defence being a matter of necessity afterall and Iran can't really do anything right in America and Israel's eyes on the nuclear question.

I think the fact that the moderates' and reformers' man in Qom managed to replace Ahmadinejad with little fuss this week, we can look back on the accusations of electoral fraud back in 2009 with fresh scepticism.

[Sasha]

wouldnt think so necessarily, the fact that he vowed to release mousavi from house arrest swayed a lot of the youth opposition to vote for him who at first wanted to boycott the elections.
that combined with that there was no ahmadinejad loyalist to convincingly pull a new mass fraud for and that the ahmadinjad clique has been cut lose by khameini because of the constant charges of corruption could mean that this result can be quite similar to what the result in 2009 in a "fair" election would have been

[hashem]

massive support he gathered is interesting, curious how he will position himself with such a base.

election results which the government claims are not true. he may have been the winner but with very few votes. voters in this elections were much less than 1997 or 2009. in 1997 voting places were filled with people and the government claimed that outcome was 28 million. in present election they were empty but the government claimed that 36 million people have voted!

[Paul Pott]

Ha for all we know, this could have been a show to install Rouhani to unify the country.

[Yesereth]

This Rouhani is a key player in Iran's security apparatus. He was Iran's negotiator with the EU at one point. All the other candidates are also already quite involved in the government and in the nuclear program. We all know how these "elections" really function, and this Rouhani makes the most sense given Iran's current geopolitical position. The fact that the region is heating up so quickly warrants a "warrior" or at least the guy who spent most of his career running the warriors. He seems to have the full support of the Supreme Leader. The international media keeps proclaiming him a "moderate" but there is nothing moderate about any of these elites in Iran. He may be a moderate in today's Iran, but the whole society shifted so far right to be moderate makes little difference.

What are some thoughts?

[barbelo]

http://i.imgur.com/okQo3ya.jpg