Iran's new president hails 'victory of moderation'

[shaayecanaan]

Source: Reuters

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday with a resounding defeat of conservative hardliners, calling it a victory of moderation over extremism and pledging a new tone of respect in international affairs.

Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran's tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But the president runs the economy and wields broad influence in decision-making in other spheres. Rohani's resounding mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/15/us-iran-election-idUSBRE95C1E120130615

[dimbear]

1. Welcomed with cautious optimism. Extremely cautious. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

2. The best part... no more Ahmadinejad!!!!

C-Ya, the Dubya of Iran!!!!!

[shaayecanaan]

3. Indeed

the biggest moral alibi the West had for going to war against Iran is gone. At least now its unlikely that the West will try to do to iran what they did to Iraq.

[cstanleytech]

5. Still alot depends on how Iran behaves epecially regarding its nuclear plants.

If they agree to shut them down and turn over any of the stuff used to make a nuke to the IAEA and allow random IAEA inspections for the next few years then I see no reason for keeping the sanctions in place other than some of the arms ones.
Course the varies governments could throw them a bone to say by offering low to no interest loans to get some industries Iran could actually make use of such as help setting up some geothermal electric plants and solar and wind farms in order to offset the loss of the nuclear plants.

[shaayecanaan]

11. They dont care about the US sanctions...

The US has had a hard on for beating up on the Iranians since 1979, and the Iranians have not done any serious business in the US for thirty years. Barely a week goes by without the US Congress passing another meaningless batch of Iran sanctions - the last batch targeted boatbuilding supplies, of all things. No sane Iranian leader is going to try and talk to US politicians when they are more concerned with looking tough and hamming it up for the Israel lobby.

What really hurt them was the European sanctions, because that's where they did their banking. I think Rouhani is going to have to put on a hair shirt and go to Brussels and make a serious effort to resolve things with the EU. They are probably going to want concessions on Syria though.

Rouhani knows Europe well, he studied in Scotland for ten years and speaks English fluently as well as French. I think we are going to see him use those strengths to appeal directly to the European people.

[cstanleytech]

17. I was refering to all of the sanctions not just the US ones.

But even to get just the EU ones removed the Iranian government is going to have to make some concessions over what largely caused the sanctions to be put into place which is their nuclear program.

[Ash_F]

21. Fun fact: The EU ones are the US ones.

~International politics~

[Daniel537]

14. No comparison to Dubya.

Ahmadinejad never invaded another country on false pretenses and got hundreds of thousands of innocents killed.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. I meant intelligence-wise.

Anyone who denies the Holocaust cannot be very bright, given the overwhelming evidence.

[Daniel537]

16. Fair enough

But its important to always keep things in perspective.

[chuckstevens]

4. Ahmadinejad

Two of the 1979 American Hostages swear that Ahmadinejad was one of their captors. Now, I'm no fan of W and Cheney, but if they belong at the Hague for war crimes trials, so does this sociopathical, Fundamentalists, so does this asshole. Goodbye and good riddance!

[Daniel537]

13. That ridiculous story was debunked years ago. n/t

[chuckstevens]

18. REALLY?

Really? Then how do you explain the photographic evidence showing him escorting one of the hostages? The story HAS NOT BEEN DEBUNKED!

[SkyDaddy7]

22. Some here on DU must...

convince themselves that Ahmadinejad & the Islamic Republic are innocent, benevolent Regime that would never use terrorism abroad to flex their power & they treat their citizens with the up most respect. And any evidence that clearly shows this view is ABSURD is written off as CIA/Mossad propaganda.

I am not saying Ahmadinejad was involved but I do know there were several former hostages that have said he was most certainly involved & was actually one of the leaders...I think the CIA trying to avoid conflict in 2005-06 said there was not enough evidence to prove he was involved...That was at the height of the Iraq debacle & the last thing the Cheney/Bush administration needed was having to act on such a claim if true.

However, it sickened me in 2009 to see so many here on DU be so cold toward the Iranian people simply because they did not want the US involved. Just like the Syrian conflict when it first started many here on DU were repeating the Iranian regime's line about how the protest were due to foreigners & the protesters were terrorist...I honestly lost a lot of respect for many of my fellow Liberals. It really is SAD!!

[Nye Bevan]

6. Does anyone know if this guy accepts that the Holocaust actually happened? (nt)

[shaayecanaan]

8. If he didnt, then I'm pretty sure we would have heard about it by now...

after all, there is a veritable cottage industry of people dedicated to digging up that sort of dirt.

[Turbineguy]

7. Well, with GW Bush done

they just don't need somebody to match crazy for crazy.

[brett_jv]

9. I'm chit-chatting with a friend from Iran on Steam IM right now ...

He is way stoked that this has happened. He says the large majority of the population are 'secretly secular' and that MANY people are ecstatic about this outcome. Apparently, this Rohani guy seriously trounced the competition, winning > 50% of the vote (despite there being 8 major candidates, 6 of whom were fundies), which means there will be no recount or anything. It's a 'done deal', basically, and this is sounding like really, really great news. I really hope he lives long enough to take office ...

[shaayecanaan]

10. there are thousands on the streets apparently

Even Iranians here for the most part chose to go to the polling booth and vote.

The US chose to forbid Iran from operating any polling booths in the US outside of the area around the Iranian embassy, and Canada banned Iranian polling booths altogether. Quite churlish behaviour in the circumstances, luckily it didn't matter.

[jessie04]

12. " Moderate" is the ultimate relative word.

It sure as hell isnt the same as the word "moderate" in the west.

Good luck with that.

[Mosby]

19. the media can call him anything they want

Iran has the same Supreme Leader running the country today as they did last week.

End of story.

[Posteritatis]

20. It's almost like there isn't a standard political spectrum for the whole world. Imagine! (nt)

[shaayecanaan]

23. Apparently "moderate" in the US means blowing up Afghans at wedding parties

with Predator drones. They even give out the Nobel Peace Prize for that, I'm told.