{"id":6136,"date":"2017-08-09T22:26:18","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T16:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=6136"},"modified":"2017-08-11T19:57:09","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T14:27:09","slug":"hassan-rouhani-second-term-as-irans-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/hassan-rouhani-second-term-as-irans-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Hassan Rouhani second term as Iran\u2019s President"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hassan Rouhani has formally begun his second term as Iran\u2019s President in especially challenging circumstances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pressures on Rouhani<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Conservatives at Iran are pushing for a hard-line agenda, Sunni states in the Gulf are consolidating a regional alliance against Shia-majority Iran, and the U.S. is turning up the heat on the Iran\u2019s missile programme.<\/li>\n<li>Rouhani, who won the election on a moderate platform, drew hope during his campaign that he would build on the momentum his first term had generated and initiate social reform.<\/li>\n<li>The situation seems challenging as given the resolve of the clerical establishment to push back any major attempt to change the\u00a0status quo.<\/li>\n<li>In Iran\u2019s complex, multipolar political system, the security establishment reports directly to the Supreme Leader, who can override the government on critical issues.<\/li>\n<li>The expectation from Mr. Rouhani would be to expand the reform agenda into domestic politics.<\/li>\n<li>However, one of the first decisions Mr. Rouhani has taken in the new term raises questions about his resolve to initiate meaningful reforms.<\/li>\n<li>Rouhani nominated an all-men cabinet, which needs to be approved by Parliament.<\/li>\n<li>The chances of women nominees getting through the parliamentary process were high this time given that reformists and moderates make up a majority in the Majlis.<\/li>\n<li>Still, Mr. Rouhan preferred not to take the risk of antagonizing conservatives.<\/li>\n<li>The nuclear deal, the signature achievement of Mr. Rouhani\u2019s first term, is under attack, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to cancel its certification.<\/li>\n<li>With the U.S. imposing more sanctions on Iran over the missile programme and joining hands with its regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia, conservative sections find their hard-line views vindicated and would like Tehran to reciprocate in the same tenor.<\/li>\n<li>Rouhani seems to have preferred to avoid a clash within the system over his cabinet nominations.<\/li>\n<li>It is unclear to what extent he may sacrifice the reformist agenda under pressure from hardliners.<\/li>\n<li>His supporters hope that he will come around to simultaneously chasing a pragmatic reformist agenda at home and a realistic foreign policy that doesn\u2019t succumb to external provocations.<\/li>\n<li>Only then would Hassan Rouhani live up to the expectations of the millions of Iranians who re-elected him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>India \u2013 Iran relations<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xcNIdv2DZK\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/india-iran-bilateral-ties\/\">India- Iran Bilateral Relations<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;India- Iran Bilateral Relations&#8221; &#8212; ForumIAS Blog\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/india-iran-bilateral-ties\/embed\/#?secret=xcNIdv2DZK\" data-secret=\"xcNIdv2DZK\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context Hassan Rouhani has formally begun his second term as Iran\u2019s President in especially challenging circumstances. Pressures on Rouhani Conservatives at Iran are pushing for a hard-line agenda, Sunni states in the Gulf are consolidating a regional alliance against Shia-majority Iran, and the U.S. is turning up the heat on the Iran\u2019s missile programme. Rouhani,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/hassan-rouhani-second-term-as-irans-president\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hassan Rouhani second term as Iran\u2019s President<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":6139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-social","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/hassan-rouhani-1.jpg?fit=1008%2C517&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704846349},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}