Position of moderate pro-Westerners in Iran weakened

09.01.2017
Iran

Yesterday, the former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a key figure in the pro-liberal camp, died.

Political career

Rafsanjani was Iran's president from 1989 to 1997 and tried to integrate the country into the globalized West. At the same time he pursued liberal economic reforms which were not popular with the people, which in 2005 contributed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in elections.


Rafsanjani also served on the Assembly of Experts, whose members choose the future spiritual leader of the country and make decisions in the event of his illness.

The next presidential elections

The next presidential elections in Iran will be held in May 2017. Hassan Rouhani will stand for election again. However, real policy in Iran is different from European and global standards. Posts and capacities are associated with personalities, not parties representing the interests of certain groups, whether conservatives, moderates, reformists, or liberals.


In any case, the liberals have lost a key figure of influence at both the spiritual (higher) and the secular (representative and executive) levels of power in the country.

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