Reformists sweep Tehran municipal vote as Rouhani wins Iran

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani won a second term in office by a significant margin, amid high voter turnout. That is why, during his second term, Rouhani may have to settle with Iran’s traditional alliance with Russian Federation and China.

Tillerson said, the Trump administration is now conducting a comprehensive review of our Iran policy. Although the European Union will not convince Iran to give up on Assad, it could at least try to persuade Iranians to use their influence to rein in the Assad regime’s worst atrocities. According to some reports, it lost $50 billon every year from the constraints.

Iran, which held presidential elections Friday, is a sharp contrast, Zarif noted, to the inherited monarchy that rules in Saudi Arabia. Both countries are allied with America, but the two have a tradition of being regional adversaries.

The Trump administration shares these concerns, and Iran was a major topic during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel. He signed a $110 billon arms sale deal with the Saudis, the biggest such deal in American history. Trump’s diatribe against Iran at the Arab Islamic American Summit at Riyadh recalls Iran’s vilification by George Bush Junior that had adverse consequences.

“The United States and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon – never ever – and must cease its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias”, Mr Trump said.

Monday’s attack at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in the English city of Manchester killed at least 22 people and wounded 59.

The second hurdle is the new USA administration.

“The U.S. leaders should know that whenever we need a missile test because of a technical aspect, we will test”, Rouhani said in a news conference. There is no disputing that Iran has helped fan the flames of conflict through its meddling in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

“They are there to encourage Sunni Saudi Arabia’s thirst for war against Shia Iran and its allies”. Iranian officers were helping to direct the ground campaign against Aleppo, Syria, this fall, when rebels finally lost control of a city the dictator had starved.

Rouhani’s efforts to open up Iran to less hostile relations with the West still have to be couched in the rhetoric of anti-Americanism that has been a pillar of Iranian rule since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Just a few days before the election, Rouhani publicly railed against the hardliners’ plans to restrict people’s freedoms further and exclude women from the public sphere. GDP grew by 4.5 percent in 2016 and unemployment fell from 15 percent when he took over to 10 percent previous year.

He warned though that Iran’s relations under his presidency do not accept “intimidation or humiliation”, adding that this is the most important message from the people of Iran to the outside world.

Many were determined to ensure Rouhani now kept his vows to improve civil liberties and reform the economy.

“The fact that Rouhani won as a reformist who delivered the nuclear deal and promised to bring in foreign investment would suggest that there is support for things like the oil contracts”, Patrick Murphy, a Dubai-based partner at law firm Clyde & Co., said by phone Sunday. “We want to see deeds, not words” from Iran, he added.