Hassan Rouhani’s friends and enemies alike identify him as the architect of Iran’s nuclear agreement that finally brought the end of sanctions last month. After last Friday’s elections the man who made the Barjam – the Persian acronym for the laboriously negotiated deal – should be able to pursue further opening-up to the west, and perhaps implement gradual change at home. The results of the twin elections for parliament and the clerical assembly of experts have been a significant boost for the president and vindicated the policy of engagement he has pursued since 2013. On the evidence of the results so far, in the next Majlis, the Iranian parliament, he will enjoy the support of a coalition of reformists, centrists or pragmatic conservatives more ready to confront suspicious hardliners.
In the run-up to the Vienna breakthrough last July, Rouhani came under severe pressure from “principlists” opposed to dealing with the US and Europe. Mohammad Javad Zarif, his foreign minister, was labelled a traitor and threatened with being buried in the concrete to be used to decommission theArak nuclear reactor.
Despite the widespread disqualifications of candidates, reformists did not abandon the race. Instead, they threw their weight behind a coalition with little-known independents and moderate conservatives that are on course to outnumber hardliners opposed to Rouhani.
Ali Larijani, the outgoing Majlis speaker, is a principlist from Qom but is on the president’s side – and serves as a useful conduit to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The same is true of Ali Motahari, a conservative on social issues – for example he supports compulsory hijab for women – but moderate on others.
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