Iran’s ‘moderate’ new president

Iranians elected a relatively moderate president, raising fresh hopes that a diplomatic solution might be found to its nuclear standoff with the West.

What happened

The people of Iran elected a relatively moderate president last week, raising fresh hopes that a diplomatic solution might be found to its nuclear standoff with the West. Hassan Rouhani, 64, was the most moderate of the six candidates permitted to run by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and won on a centrist platform of renewed engagement abroad and greater cultural freedoms for young people and women in Iran. Iranians took to the streets in celebration at Rouhani’s landslide victory, in stark contrast to the riots following the disputed presidential election of 2009. But while Rouhani called his election “a victory for wisdom, moderation, and maturity...over extremism,” skeptics noted that he has long-standing, close ties to Iran’s religious establishment, and served as the country’s chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005.

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