Hasan Rouhani: Iran's 'Diplomatic Sheikh'

'Moderation and prudence' was the slogan on the back of which Hasan Rouhani stormed to power in a keenly contested election in 2013. But revamping an administration which was full of hardliners, hand-picked by the former president Mahmoud Ahmedenejad, was no easy task.

But Rouhani wasn't an outsider in the corridors of power in the deeply conservative state.

Rouhani has been an important player in country's political setting right from the days of the Iranian revolution of 1979. He was an influential leader during the Iran-Iraq war in the '80s, and held several important positions in the defence establishment in the post-revolution regime.

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In the difficult period of the post-war scenario in 1989, Rouhani was appointed as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. He also served as the deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament from 1996 to 2000.

However, it was as the negotiator of Iran's nuclear program that Rouhani shone through for his approach of moderation.

When he seized power in 2013, one of Rouhani's key campaign promises had been to end the isolation of Iran.

Iran was considered a rogue state, pursuing nuclear technology to increase its clout in the region on the back of a nuclear bomb. The pariah state was under crippling sanctions, which had pushed the Iranian economy into free fall.

However, in 2015, Rouhani struck a nuclear deal with the United States under Barack Obama and five other world powers, under which Iran would agree to open all its nuclear facilities up for inspections. In return, the crippling economic sanctions were lifted.

But a change of guard at the White House threatens to unravel the Iranian nuclear deal. President Donald Trump throughout his campaigning and even after his election has resorted to the rhetoric that the Iranian nuclear deal is the worst negotiated deal by the US ever, and has repeatedly threatened to pull out of it. The other five world powers who are also signatories to the deal such as France, Russia, Britain, China and Germany have a different assessment.

Rouhani was voted to power for a second term in May, 2017. However, his approach of moderation and pragmatism has yielded few results on the ground in the deeply conservative society. He has faced protests and backlash from the more hardline elements, and despite being a popular elected leader, the Supreme Leader of Iran continues to be Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who has exercised an iron grip on the strings of power in Iran since 1989.

Rouhani's second tenure has been marred by protests. Despite the economic sanctions being lifted by the West, Iran witnessed widespread unrest last December due to galloping inflation and unemployment. The Iranian government said the CIA, in cahoots with the Saudis and Israel, manufactured the protests. Others, meanwhile, speculated that the former combative president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was behind the protests which had rocked the streets of Tehran.

Simultaneously, Iran has also witnessed protests from several women against the practice of wearing hijab. Vida Mohaved became a symbol of protest against the directive that hijab for women is compulsory in a public space, when she stood on top of a utilities box at the Enghelab Avenue holding her head scarf on stick. It is safe to predict that Iran hasn't seen the last of these protests.

For his emphasis on moderation, Rouhani has been described as the 'Diplomatic Sheikh'. But it will be interesting to see how the 'Diplomatic Sheikh' manouveres through the troubled times which loom in the backdrop of the belligerence of Trump, and protests on Iranian streets which refuse die down.