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Iran's Protests Reveal the Truth about Hassan Rouhani

(World Affairs Journal) Michael J. Totten - The protests that rocked Iran in December and January largely fizzled out after the government arrested more than 3,000 people. However, these events should put to bed once and for all the myth that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is some kind of reformer. Rouhani famously ran as a "moderate" during the 2013 election, where only the hand-picked candidates of "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Khamenei can get their names on the ballot. But he's still a regime creature who participated in nearly every state crackdown against dissidents and protesters since the revolution against the Shah in 1979. Western foreign policy makers and journalists have treated him as a moderate and reformer for more than four years now. But Rouhani is not the head of state. Khamenei is. He's the one who calls every shot that matters. Rouhani can no more reform the Iranian regime than the mayor of Washington, D.C., can overhaul the U.S. federal government. Sure, Iranians chose Rouhani by a 3-1 margin in 2013, but only because he was the lesser of evils. His cabinet consists strictly of hardliners backed by Khamenei. Did Rouhani tamp down Iran's belligerent foreign policy? Last month, he spent an hour in parliament defending an increase in the Revolutionary Guard budget that makes it triple the size of the regular army's.
2018-01-19 00:00:00
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