The decisive election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s next president is a message to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the majority of Iranians reject Khamenei's policy of "resistance" and confrontation with the outside world.The Supreme Leader, who told the United States on Friday to “go to hell” for disparaging Iran’s qualified democracy, is now confronted with a new chief executive best known for compromise in nuclear negotiations.
Iran’s relations with the West improved significantly during the 16 years that the multilingual Rouhani was secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security. While Rouhani led talks with the Europeans from 2003 to 2005, Iran suspended elements of its nuclear program. It was only after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president that Iran aggressively accelerated uranium enrichment. As a result, the UN Security Council voted six times to condemn Iran, and the United States and its European allies have imposed draconian sanctions on Iranian financial institutions and oil exports.