From the heart of Iran’s state media headquarters, President-elect Hassan Rouhani unveiled his reformist agenda on Saturday, June 29. “Iranians chose a new path. The future administration should act according to the majority of voters. Iranians voted for moderation and logic; the future administration should avoid extremism,” the president-elect said in his first official remarks after being chosen by more than half the population. Rouhani, who is said to be a centrist, seemed similar to former President Mohammad Khatami in seeking to avoid confrontation with the West, but seemed like outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he objected to making compromise. “Moderation in foreign policy is neither surrender nor conflict, neither passivity nor confrontation. Moderation is effective and constructive interaction with the world.”
Rouhani used the words moderation and moderate more than 15 times in his speech, as if he wanted to present himself internally and externally as the man of moderation. “Moderation should be present in every aspect of the country,” he said. “I believe Iranians have always preferred moderation; they suffered from extremism and negligence.” In these last words, it was as if he was attacking the outgoing Ahmadinejad — albeit without naming him. Rouhani sought from the beginning of his speech to draw a bold line between Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Republic that Rouhani will preside over: “This election was a response to all the accusations against the Islamic Republic and its purity. The Islamic Republic’s founder taught us that the country should be ruled by people according to Islamic laws.”
