There was a remarkable geo-political shift when President Trump lined up Saudi Arabia and Israel in what is being called “a Nato-style coalition” against Iran. He is now allied with half the Muslim world. Coincidentally, the Iranian presidential election was won by Hassan Rouhani on the day of Trump’s arrival.  

In his article for the Telegraph, Christopher Booker writes, “As I have reported many times, Rouhani is an utterly ruthless operator, who had presided since 2013 over a collapsing economy and what Amnesty International called “a staggering execution spree”, murdering and imprisoning so many dissidents that Iran has per capita the highest execution rate in the world.” He adds, “The real power in Iran lies with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is answerable only to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. This not only controls more than half Iran’s economy but is responsible for spreading terror at home and abroad across the Middle East.”

Hassan Rouhani has been elected to a second term as Iran’s president. Most do not interpret this as the Iranian people having voted for a “moderate” over a “hardline’ candidate, although Western mainstream media describes Rouhani as a “moderate”.

Heshmat Alavi, in his Al Arabiya article says, “In fact, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sought to repeat the 2009 scenario of engineering the entire election process to have his preferred candidate declared victor, not Rouhani.”

The Iranian people faced a hard decision in this year’s presidential election. In Iran, the people’s choices to were reduced to selecting the lesser of two evils.

Hassan Rouhani’s first term saw a nuclear deal that provided little economic benefit to Iran’s populace. Their poverty incited massive protests over inflated salaries for officials. As well, they witnessed a crackdown on human rights that imprisoned students, bloggers, journalists and artists.

The Iran lobby seeks to downplay the role Ali Khamenei plays in both determining the outcome of the election, and his power over whoever is elected. 

The National Iranian American Council was the most vocal group that pushed the narrative of Iranian presidential election being a battle between the “moderate” Hassan Rouhani and the “hardliner” Ebrahim Raisi.

Shortly after his election to a second term, President Hassan Rouhani held a press conference to outline his plans for the upcoming four years.

That the mullahs’ regime will continue their militant efforts in the region, was one of the first things he noted, adding that Iran had troops on the ground in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and that they are ready to continue to fight terrorism in the region. “Iran has and will support these through its diplomats and military advisors,” said Rouhani. “The Iranians and Russians fought against terrorism alongside the Syrians and the Iraqis. Who continues to fund the terrorists? The U.S. government has never fought against terrorism…Hezbollah is a group accepted and trusted by the people of Lebanon.”