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| IRI President-elect Hassan Rohani |
Politician, academic, diplomat: Iran’s incoming President Hassan
Rohani
Editing, re-reporting by
Carolyn Bennett
Before winning the presidential election, Dr. Hassan Rohani spoke
to the nuclear issue that is continuously raised by Western officials. He said that
during his tenure (October 2003-August 2005) as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, his
country’s policy ─ under the supervision of Leader of the Islamic Revolution
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ─ “was to repel threats and ‘to convert them to
opportunities’ in order to disprove Western allegations that Iran is pursuing
military objectives in its nuclear energy program; and to foil Washington’s
plots against the Islamic Republic.”
He said that in November 2004 “the Board of Governors [of
the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA] unanimously confirmed the
peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear energy program. … We proved the peaceful
nature of our nuclear energy program.”
However, Rohani said, the United States “wanted to say that
Iran is after a [nuclear] bomb (and) we wanted to prove that the U.S. was
lying.
Iran was not pursuing a bomb nor is
it today or will it be tomorrow ─ because the Leader has said it is a grave sin.
Pretext for relentless hostility
The Iranian Foreign Ministry late last year issued a
statement saying, “Unilateral European and U.S. sanctions against Iran are
irrational, illegal and inhumane, and are against the Iranian nation.” Speaking
for the Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast charged that the nuclear issue is being
used by the West “as a pretext to apply pressure on Tehran for ‘insisting on
its own independence.’ The “sanctions
‘…are adopted under the pretext of
Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities... but even if our nuclear issue is
resolved, these countries will certainly use other excuses to put pressure on
us.’
President-elect
Hassan Rouhani (var. in press reports: “Rohani,” b. November
12, 1948): Iranian politician, lawyer, academic, diplomat; current president-elect
of Iran (the Islamic Republic of Iran).
Dr. Rohani has been a member of the Assembly of Experts (1999
- ), member of the Expediency Council (1991- ), member of the Supreme National
Security Council (1989- ), and head of the Center for Strategic Research (1992
-). He has been deputy speaker of the 4th and 5th terms of the Islamic
Consultative Assembly (Majlis) and secretary of the Supreme National Security
Council (1989-2005). In the latter capacity, he headed Iran’s former nuclear
negotiating team and was the country’s top negotiator with the EU three (UK,
France, and Germany) – on Iran’s nuclear program.
On June 14, Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election with
an outright victory. He received 18,613,329 votes: 50.7 percent of the total
36,704,156 ballots cast. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s voter turnout in its 11th
presidential election, according to the country’s Interior Ministry, was 72.7
percent. The president-elect’s inauguration occurs in August.
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ollowing the election of Dr. Rohani, Conflicts Forum Weekly commented that even before ballots were
cast, “it was clear” that whoever won the Islamic Republic of Iran’s election, the
“Iranian foreign policy was set to change and to become more open to improved
international relations globally ─ though not necessarily centered on an
improvement with the West” but more likely Iran’s reinforced turn eastward.
“…The reality of this election as a genuine expression of
Iranian political orientation will be accepted as such by most of the world (but
in the United States) it is already being held to demonstrate that sanctions
have worked their effect on a distressed Iranian people and that the United
States may now expect to reap concessions from the newly-elected president
without any requirement for western reciprocity.”
This is a misreading of Iranian mood, the opinion concludes;
“and if such a view becomes embedded in western thinking, the loss will be “a
strategic opportunity … to enter a new relationship with Iran.”
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| Head of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (l.) Iranian president elect Hassan Rohani (r.) June 22, 2013 |
A
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yatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Head of Iran’s Expediency
Council, on Saturday told the press that president-elect Hassan Rohani’s “policy
of moderation and wisdom and the use of collective wisdom, which is the slogan
of Dr Rohani’s administration, can safeguard and strengthen the country’s
national solidarity and comprehensive unity, and it can also help solve
numerous domestic problems, in particular economic ones; and create
constructive interaction with world countries on international issues.”
Turning eastward away from
Relentless prejudice, paranoia,
pretexts, hostility
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this past week that “Moscow welcomes Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani’s willingness to adopt a
creative and active approach to settle the Western nuclear standoff with
Tehran.”
Two of the veto-wielding powers on the United Nations Security
Council, China and Russia, have sustained their support for Iran’s nuclear
energy program and their opposition to sanctions against Tehran.
Sources and notes
Hassan Rohani biographical sketch, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Rouhani
“U.S.-engineered sanctions against Iran illegal: Rohani,” Wednesday
May 29, 2013 2:7AM GMT, http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/29/305985/antiiran-sanctions-illegal-rohani/
“Conflicts Forum Weekly Comment,” published by Conflicts
Forum June 22, 2013
http://www.conflictsforum.org/2013/conflicts-forum-weekly-comment-9/
“Rohani’s policies to solve Iran problems: Rafsanjani,” June
22, 2103, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/22/310319/rohanis-policies-to-solve-problems/
IMAGE: Head of Iran s Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani L - Iranian president elect Hassan Rohani meet June 22 2013
“Iran: new EU sanctions ‘illegal, inhumane’ ─ Foreign
ministry official says latest round of unilateral European sanctions against
Iran target its general population,” Middle East Online
October 16, 2012, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=54922
“West bans Iranian channels to monopolize information:
Analyst,” June 22, 2013,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/22/310347/west-bans-iran-media-to-control-info/
“Russia welcomes Iran president-elect's creative nuclear
approach,” June 21, 2013,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/21/310082/russia-hails-rohanis-nuclear-approach/
“Rohani forms evaluation committees to offer strategies for
next admin,” June 22, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/22/310334/rohani-forms-evaluation-committees/
Rohani currently represents Leader
of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Supreme National
Security Council and is also a member of the Expediency Council and the
Assembly of Experts. He is also the president of the Expediency Council's
Center for Strategic Research.
“P5+1 to offer new Iran talks after Rohani takes office:
Russia,” June 22, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/22/310238/p51-to-offer-new-talks-with-iran/
The U.S., the Israeli regime and
some of their allies falsely claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian
objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and the European
Union using the unfounded claim as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on
Iran.
Tehran strongly rejects the
allegation over its nuclear energy activities, maintaining that as a committed
signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology
for peaceful purposes.
China and Russia, as two
veto-wielding powers at the UN Security Council, have repeatedly expressed
their support for Iran’s nuclear energy program, voicing opposition to the
sanctions against Tehran.
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