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Khamenei vs Rouhani: A Battle for the Future of Iran?
[IranWire] On May 5, Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website published a photograph of a meeting between the supreme leader and senior officials of Hassan Rouhani’s administration. In the photograph, President Rouhani stands to the right of the supreme leader, who is seated. Both men are smiling, and Rouhani holds a pose that suggests deference. The photograph is at odds with recent reports of exchanges between the two men — in fact, with reports of their relationship since Rouhani was elected as president in 2013. Khamenei is good at detail — except when he wants to avoid it, which was notable in his comments on the nuclear negotiations. He routinely picks at the finer details of a policy he does not like, and is fond of raising his own presidency (1981-1989) in a bid to show that he fully understands the challenges the executive branch of government faces in Iran. As the number of Iranian institutions under the supreme leader’s supervision continues to increase, he continues to remind the public of his expertise in making executive decisions. Certain emotive and populist refrains pop up in the supreme leader’s speeches, an easy way of getting people who are hesitant about Rouhani’s performance as president on his side. Among his favorite terms are “Iranian interests”, “the Persian Gulf”, “the Iranian people”, “domestic production”, “lifting of sanctions” and “economic boom”— all of them simple ways of reminding the Iranian public that he stands by the people. Although he distanced himself on the nuclear deal, he was also good at raising expectations among the wider public. He knows all to well how devastating a return to a pre-sanctions economy would be for the country. Still, he is comfortable conjuring up this risk, closing his eyes for effect during speeches, balling his hand into a fist and dismissing the outcome of the nuclear negotiation as a “total loss”. Posted by: Pappy 2016-05-11 |
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