Iran's twelfth presidential election
was held on May 19, 2017. The incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, was
"re-elected" amid various charges
of fraud, vote-rigging, and embarrassing measures to portray the polling
stations as crowded. Yet the Iranian regime's propaganda machine labeled
him a reformer, and much of the mainstream press swallowed it hook, line and
sinker.
It's an illusion. Elected under
these circumstances, Rouhani's far from being Iran's actual ruler: he remains
subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. And no, there aren't any
"reforms."
Iran's election was far from free or fair,
which hardly portends any sort of leader who can enact "reform."
The president is first vetted as a candidate by a clerical panel called
the Guardian Council, affiliated with the supreme leader.
The supreme leader
stands at the apex of Iran's complex political-religious dictatorship.
He has veto power over all policies and ultimate control of the
security forces. Iran's Supreme Leader controls much of economy
through 14 main entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC). Rouhani's freedom of
action in foreign policy is also heavily circumscribed by the supreme leader's
authority.
Iran's
12th presidential election came at a critical time. The economy is
deteriorated, inflation is skyrocketing, and there is considerable
unemployment, shortages, poverty, sleeping in graveyards, mine explosion
incidents, skyscraper fire disasters, a lack of free competition, a
deterioration of human rights, and the high cost of military intervention in
Syria. "The main concerns of business in Iran
[are] around the issue of stability and peace," said Masoud Khansari, head of the
Tehran Chamber of Commerce.
Rouhani's incumbency
coincides with one of the most turbulent periods in recent Middle East history.
At a recent Riyadh, Saudi Arabia conference, new military forces have
been established, with 34,000 troops to fight terrorism in Syria and Iraq.
Saudi Arabia is Iran's chief religious and secular rival. The
countries in its Riyadh coalition have expressed their enmity to Iran.
They show every sign of being determined to condemn and
curb sectarianism and the mullah regime's arms shipments to Iraq as
well as its unwelcome role in Syria and Yemen. "The main goal in
establishing this force was to confront not only al-Qaeda and ISIS forces but
also militias supported by Iran in Syria," said
Mohamed Mojahed Azziyat, a member of the Egyptian Parliament Foreign
Affairs Committee, in an interview with Sky News Arabic on Wednesday.
Also, the new
generation of youth is protesting the regime's repressive measures.
Rouhani is a regime
insider with a history of holding senior positions in the security apparatus
following the 1979 Revolution. He served on the Supreme Defense Council
during the Iran-Iraq War as well.
Rouhani has no will to
end or even reform Iran's system of government. He reinvented himself as
a so-called full-fledged reformist for his second term, but despite his
promises, the people know he will not live up to his commitment. His
record of 3,000 executions during his first term will not go forgotten, either.
Iran's citizens were not surprised when on inauguration day he first
headed to the tomb of former Iranian regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini (who died
in 1989) to renew his allegiance to him and launch his second term after bowing
to Khamenei.
On the third day of
Rouhani's second term in office, "the regime has immediately relaunched
its domestic crackdown machine after the election farce, especially through
executions and torture in prisons across the country. Ten inmates in the
prisons of Tabriz, Zahedan, Ardebil, Kermanshah and Isfahan, and Karaj Central
Prison were hanged on May 22 and 23. Nine of these cases were carried out
on May 23 alone."
On May 25, less than
week after the election, IRGC Air and Space Force commander General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said:
"I announce today that in recent years we have built a third underground
factory for the manufacture of missiles[.] ... We are going to develop our
ballistic power."
Iran's political and
economic isolation will continue, as the regime is not able to change.
The international community sees no security in investing in Iran.
To this end, the only predictable change in Iran is regime change.
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