Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday that the new US ban on travellers from six mainly Muslim countries was “truly shameful”. “US now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians,” Zarif tweeted. The temporary ban, which came into force late on … Read more
Iran’s coalition of reformists and moderates has swept to power in major cities across the country, results showed Monday, redrawing the political map and amplifying the resounding re-election of President Hassan Rouhani. The coalition now has control of the six largest Iranian cities, including Tehran, the holy city of Mashhad and tourist hotspot Isfahan — … Read more
After his re-election triumph, President Hassan Rouhani must now grapple with a fiercely hostile United States and hardliners at home as he struggles to build a more moderate and connected Iran. Iran’s entrenched conservative establishment — particularly in the judiciary and elite Revolutionary Guards — remain deeply suspicious of Rouhani’s talk of civil liberties and … Read more
It was a rare night of open-air partying in Iran on Saturday as tens of thousands of supporters of President Hassan Rouhani took to the streets to celebrate his re-election. For many, it was a chance to breathe easily again after a tense campaign between Rouhani and his hardline opponent Ebrahim Raisi. “I’m happy and … Read more
Mr Rouhani was re-elected with 57% of the vote Moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said his re-election shows voters reject extremism and want more links with the outside world. After avoiding a run-off with a 57% outright victory over his main rival, Mr Rouhani said he respected his opponents’ right to criticise him. Mr … Read more
Iran, the Middle East’s second largest power by economy and population, is the Shiite Muslim rival of regional Sunni giant Saudi Arabia. Iran has the region’s second largest economy after Saudi Arabia. With 79.11 million inhabitants (2015, World Bank), it is also the second most populous country in the Middle East, after Egypt. A founding … Read more
The 20,000 chanting fans might have come to support Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday but it was clear their real heroes were the ones still locked away by the regime. “Mousavi! Karroubi! Khatami!” they chanted at deafening volume, over and over, at the election rally in a stadium in western Tehran. Those first two … Read more
Iran’s reformist former president Mohammad Khatami has skirted a media ban to endorse moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani for a second term over conservative challengers in a tight May 19 election. Khatami, who during his 1997-2005 presidency oversaw a rapprochement with the West, has been barred from speaking openly since mass protests against the disputed reelection … Read more
Election season is under way in Iran and the rumour mill is in overdrive as the public tries to divine the backroom machinations that have thrown up major surprises in the past. “I looked back at the cables our embassy was sending out just a few weeks before the last election,” said a Western diplomat … Read more
Iran’s conservatives announced a shortlist of five presidential candidates on Thursday as they experimented with their first-ever democratic primary in a bid to find a leader to challenge President Hassan Rouhani. Fearing another defeat at the hands of the moderate president in next month’s election, a new alliance called the Popular Front of Revolutionary Forces … Read more
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected the possibility of reconciliation with a “minority” that is opposed to the regime. The idea of reconciliation emerged in newspapers this week after former reformist president Mohammad Khatami mentioned it in a statement calling on people to join a march marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. “Some … Read more