Why the West has it wrong on Iran's Rouhani

Ever since his election in June of 2013 there have been many in the West with the hope that Rouhani is a man that we can work with and may be bringing a new era of politics between Iran and the West. Before you get too excited, there are three facts though that you should know about Rouhani—who he is and what he’s trying to achieve—and these are issues that the American media does not focus on and frankly, it will change your perception.

Watch other videos about Iran and the Middle East
   • Middle East  

Subscribe to AEI's YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/AEIVideo...

Like us on Facebook
  / aeionline  

Follow us on Twitter
  / aei  

For more Information
http://www.aei.org

Music
"Flicker" by Origamibiro (http://www.origamibiro.com/)

Transcription
Ever since his election in June of 2013 there have been many in the West with the expectation or hope at least that Rouhani is a man that we can work with and may be bringing a new era of politics between Iran and the West. Before you get too excited, there are three facts though that you should know about Rouhani—who he is and what he’s trying to achieve—and these are issues that the American media does not focus on and frankly, it will change your perception.

The US needs to recognize that even though Rouhani is a reformer in a certain sense—he does want to change certain aspects of Iran’s economic policies, he does want to change the tone and the tenor of Iran’s relationship with the US and its allies—but fundamentally his goals of reform are not to overhaul the system. They are to actually keep the system going.

I think that this is something that is potentially very dangerous for US leaders to think that Rouhani is their guy, that is in many ways secretly on our side and that with the kind of the wink, wink, nod, nod, you know, “hey, I really, you know, want to work with you guys; I just have to deal with a whole bunch of crazies in Iran that want to take things backwards; you know and if you really just give me cut me some slack—help me out here—I can really bring about bigger changes with Iran that you’d really like to see.” And I think that this is a real fallacy on our part and it’s a lot of wishful thinking, frankly. What he’s really trying to do is save the system as opposed to change the system.

He doesn’t want to promote the image of the death to America and that America is the great Satan. At the same time he’s not really taking actions in what I would consider that would reflect that he actually has given up that belief. I think he’s very he’s very aware that pronouncements like that similar to what, you know, Ahmadinejad had or other hardliners in the regime are not terribly productive. They can be very self defeating for what Iran wants to achieve. So I think that the difference is that he recognizes in order to get what he wants, to get what the Supreme Leader wants which is relief from the sanctions, they need to have the a certain degree of release from that pressure from the West. So he’s putting on a good face in this regard.

Rouhani and the Supreme Leader have a long history. They’ve been working together in different forms since the 1979 revolution. Both of them are clerics; both of them are very savvy political players, so he is really is a part of the establishment in a way that President Ahmadinejad never was. Ahmadinejad was never “one of the guys.” Fundamentally he’s not part of that kind of classic ruling class that emerged after the revolution. Rouhani is, and so I think that the role that Rouhani has played in support of the Supreme Leader on the nuclear program for many years, in addition to some very aggressive crackdowns on things like the student movement in 1999, really show the credibility that Rouhani has with the Supreme Leader as someone that understands the system and supports the system.

US leaders need to have a sober understanding of who President Rouhani is and what the Iranian regime is really trying to do. We should be basing our policies on facts not hopes.

Why the West has it wrong on Rouhani