IF HE had intended to clip President Hassan Rouhani’s wings, Iran’s reactionary supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will be disappointed. Far from the knife-edge of an election analysts had anticipated, Mr Rouhani won a resounding 57% of the vote with his rousing reformist rhetoric, and secured a second term without the need for a run-off. His main rival, an authoritarian former judge, Ebrahaim Raisi, who had the backing of the hardliners, trailed badly with 38%.
Traditionally, Mr Khamenei has found second-term presidents, whatever their hue, to be troublesome. Gaining in confidence and anxious to leave a legacy, they have fought to claw back some of the supreme leader’s powers, resulting in acrimonious showdowns. Thanks to his superior constitutional and extra-constitutional powers, Mr Khamenei has always emerged on top. But at 78, he is, perhaps, tiring. Mr Rouhani, ten years his junior, will feel empowered by a popular mandate the unelected supreme leader lacks. He...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2r3CbNM
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