Managing Expectations After Iran's 2013 Elections. The election of Hasan Rouhani to the presidency last month has been greeted as indicating a progressive turn in Iranian politics. It is of course too early to tell whether the reformist rhetoric that permeated Rouhani’s campaign will materialize into concrete action. As Iran scholar Ali Ansari argued at a Chatham House event, although labelled as a “moderate” by many Iran-watchers, Rouhani is perhaps better described as a “pragmatist”. Haleh Esfandiari underscored this point in a recent article for the NYR Blog, observing that Rouhani comes to office as an insider. For sixteen years he was head of Iran’s National Security Council (NSC) and for two years Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. And yet, despite his clear-cut status as a regime “insider”, Rouhani’s campaign deviated from conservative norms on a number of levels: What are the chances that Rouhani will be able to follow through?
Finally, how should the West respond recent developments in Iran? Read More: Like this: Like Loading... Iran: how 'Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's candidate' lost the election | World news. Since the announcement of Hassan Rouhani's victory in the 14 June presidential election, pundits in Iran and the west have sought to answer the question of how Ayatollah Ali Khamenei let a candidate who was not his favourite win. Many are convinced the election was preplanned and engineered by Khamenei, the purported puppet master. But that view is based on an inherent misunderstanding of the nature of politics in Iran and the thinking of Iranian politician – or at least the thinking of Khamenei.
Iranian politics is conceived as a packaged project, conducted by the supreme leader according to a largely rigid mindset, and coloured by personal sentiment. In reality, politics in Iran, like elsewhere, is a complex process in which even the most powerful player, faced with an unfolding, unpredicted set of events, has no choice but to re-evaluate, recalculate, and eventually choose from a limited array of options. No one can get into Khamenei's head, though it is ever-tempting to try. Iran's president signals softer line on web censorship and Islamic dress code | World news. Two weeks after his sensational victory Iran's president-elect, Hassan Rouhani, has expressed relatively progressive views about civil liberties, freedom of expression and the internet.
Social networking sites such as Facebook were, he said, a welcome phenomenon. In his most outspoken interview in the Iranian media, Rouhani told Chelcheragh – a popular youth magazine – that he is opposed to segregation of sexes in society, would work to minimise censorship and believes internet filtering is futile. "In the age of digital revolution, one cannot live or govern in a quarantine," he said as he made clear he is opposed to the authorities' harsh crackdown on Iranians owning satellite dishes, which millions have installed on rooftops for access to foreign-based TV channels illegal in the country.
He said he stood in the June presidential election as a candidate critical of the current situation and also because he felt the country was at peril. "There are political reasons.