(CNN) Michael Rubin - During the Ahmadinejad years, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had gained unprecedented political and economic power. More parliamentarians, governors, and ministers were veterans of the IRGC than at any time in the Islamic Republic's history. While expectations are high that Rouhani will transform Iran at home and on the diplomatic stage, it is not clear that he can or even wants to do so. True, Rouhani quietly moved to unravel the IRGC's chokehold on Iranian politics, but he has replaced ministers and governors with veterans of the intelligence service. Iranian presidents are most powerful on inauguration day, and quickly lose power with the passage of time. Nor are reformists democrats or liberals as they are so often depicted abroad; they subscribe just as fully to the theocratic system, but simply want to tweak its implementation. The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
2013-12-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive