Will Iranian President Rouhani's Second Term Be Different?

Jul 11, 2017
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About the Authors
Omer Carmi

Omer Carmi was a 2017 military fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

Although Rouhani is a skillful politician who convinced the Iranian leadership to go along with the nuclear deal, he likely will not be in a position to wield similar influence over his country's regional activities.

May was a huge success for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. He was re-elected with a landslide majority (57 percent) in the presidential elections, defeating his hardline competitor, Ebrahim Raisi, and helping his faction win most of the municipal elections in Iran.

In most presidential democracies, a popular mandate like this would have given Rouhani a carte blanche to pursue his "Moderation and Prudence" policy in domestic and international arenas, as a basis for recovering Iran's failed economy. But Iran isn't a democracy, and its president's influence over foreign and regional issues has, in the past, proven to be limited...

Read the full article on the Cipher Brief website.

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