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Iran's New President? I See Only an Old and Vicious Regime
(Independent-UK) Peyvand Khorsandi - I've been asked a number of times what I think of Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president. As an Iranian exile, I don't think much - or I'd be on the first plane home. There should be no doubt the man is one of "Them" - an unabashed Islamist: if he is a moderate or a reformer, I'm the Jolly Green Giant. You can't be a moderate in Iran. Protecting the sanctity of the Islamic Republic's founding Khomeini-ist principles, and its resulting injustices, is your raison d'etre and if you're not up to the task, you're dead. It's a gangster regime, pure and simple. For years this guy was the Secretary of Iran's feared Supreme National Security Council. Countless killings occurred under his watch, not least during the student uprising of 1999 which Rouhani vowed to "crush mercilessly and monumentally." The Supreme Leader's PR machine offers up a cutesy, smiling cleric keen to work with the West, inviting us to see him as no more harmful than the Cookie Monster.