Rouhani takes on Trump

The turnout was relatively high, around 70 percent, and Rouhani has obtained 57 percent of the votes, winning the election in the first round.

With Rouhani’s victory over conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, Iran sent the world a message that it was choosing global engagement and economic reform over hard-line confrontation with the West.

A US policy of pressure will isolate Iran’s people without compelling their government to change.

Hungarian President János Áder and Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi were other officials who send messages to Dr. Rouhani to congratulate his on his reelection.

As such, powerful nations such as the U.S. must also understand Iran and the Middle East.

Sanctions also would be applied to those who support Iran’s terror operations, including the IRGC, which is not now designated as a terror organization by the United States. Rouhani and Zarif are certainly reformist-minded when compared to Khamenei, but they remain fixtures of the Islamic Republic’s establishment class and will not threaten its core values. Iran is the world’s fourth-largest producer measured by the scale of proven reserves.

Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, a spokesman for the Regime, told reporters on Tuesday: “The Iranian nation has chose to be powerful”. “Which is one of the major talking points … the Saudis [have] tried to push forward over the last couple of years, partly in response to the Obama administration” pursuing the Iran nuclear deal. The resolution of the nuclear crisis is of crucial importance, as Iran needs the worldwide sanctions to be lifted.

The West’s repeal of nuclear sanctions, that followed his landmark deal, was not followed by the expected foreign investment because the unilateral United States sanctions remained in place. They know that Rouhani’s re-election will not bring a dramatic transformation, but they also know that the election of Raisi might have threatened their hopes and ambitions. Rouhani’s second term can be expected to be far more challenging than the first.

“As Secretary [Rex] Tillerson said, the Trump administration is now conducting a comprehensive review of our Iran policy”, the official said. “It’s getting better day by day, but just because Rouhani has been re-elected doesn’t mean that all these other issues are completely gone”.

The uncertainty over the incumbent’s second term is over; less easily settled is the dilemma over change and moderate theocracy. The Syrian civil war remains an important burden for Iran’s economy and diplomacy. “I hope he can build on the success of the nuclear agreement to deepen relations with the West and begin to bridge the sectarian chasm between Iran and its regional neighbours”. Nevertheless, if the relations between the USA and Russian Federation get worse, then Iran will remain on the U.S.’s enemy list. Details of the new contract structure have yet to be worked out, and no oil development deal with a foreign entity has been signed in the year and a half since the sanctions were lifted.

But Rouhani’s foes are inclined to protect the domestic industry, where local companies have grown internationally uncompetitive due to the sanctions, raising fears about involving foreign rivals. On the first day of his trip, the United States sealed a almost $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

“Despite Rouhani boasting of distancing the shadows of war from our country, the Riyadh conference, focusing on establishing an Arab NATO and sales of $110 billion in military equipment underscore how the weak actions of [Rouhani’s] cabinet not only emboldened the United States to take aggressive actions against our country, even small Arab countries have reached the point of openly speaking of establishing an Arab NATO to launch a military confrontation against Iran”, the Fars piece continued.