{"id":8490,"date":"2020-11-05T14:03:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T11:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8490"},"modified":"2021-05-30T11:09:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T08:09:49","slug":"coordinated-hardline-attacks-on-rouhani-usher-in-a-new-age-of-anti-americanism-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/coordinated-hardline-attacks-on-rouhani-usher-in-a-new-age-of-anti-americanism-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Coordinated Hardline Attacks on Rouhani Usher in a New Age of Anti-Americanism in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent weeks, President Hassan Rouhani<\/a> has come under intense fire as Iran\u2019s new hardline Parliament takes steps to undermine him. Rouhani is facing strong criticism for failing to salvage Iran\u2019s economy which is suffering from US-led sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By resisting calls for his dismissal and holding the \u201chardliners\u201d accountable for undermining his presidency, Rouhani has tried but failed to split the \u201chardliners\u201d. He has only succeeded in mustering enough support in the \u201chardline\u201d camp to remain in office until next year\u2019s presidential race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes Rouhani\u2019s position extremely precarious and paves the way for the \u201chardliners\u201d to assume more power in Iran when presidential elections take place in June 2021.\u00a0 A host of potential candidates<\/a> will compete for the presidential seat, and the Iranian media is airing the profiles of potential \u201chardline\u201d candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the \u201chardliners\u201d passed a motion in June to summon President Rouhani to question him in Parliament<\/a>. In July, the Iranian Parliament collected signatures to call for Rouhani\u2019s impeachment<\/a>. It was reported that the motions were halted when the supreme leader intervened to end the factional conflict because he believed it damaged Iran\u2019s reputation abroad and undermined the country\u2019s internal stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, concerns over Iran\u2019s growing national debt led the new Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to call on Ayatollah Khamenei to halt Rouhani\u2019s plans to sell government-subsidized oil bonds<\/a> in domestic stock markets to generate much-needed revenues. Rouhani pushed for the plan over the summer at the Supreme Economic Coordination Council<\/a>, a body recently set up to deal with Iran\u2019s economic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other members of the council including Qalibaf and the \u201chardline\u201d Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi fault Rouhani for concluding the nuclear deal and curbing Iran\u2019s nuclear program. In 2018, the United States withdrew from the deal and re-imposed additional sanctions on Iran. In August of this year, Iran\u2019s legislators proposed a provocative bill to abandon the nuclear deal<\/a> and end Iran\u2019s commitment to the Additional Protocol<\/a> of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the hardline challenge to Rouhani escalated when the Parliament speaker<\/a> criticized Rouhani for failing to stabilize Iran\u2019s currency which has plummeted as a result of US sanctions. In October, the Iranian rial dropped from the official rate of 42,000 rials against the US dollar to over 300,000  <\/em>rials against the US dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly afterwards,\u00a0 Mojtaba Zolnouri, a \u201chardline\u201d lawmaker who chairs the Parliament\u2019s powerful National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, called on the supreme leader to punish Rouhani by issuing an order to hang the president<\/a> a thousand times over for his mismanagement of\u00a0 the country. Following Rouhani\u2019s complaints , the supreme leader intervened to forbid attacks on him. <\/a>\u00a0The supreme leader emphasized\u00a0 that\u00a0 Rouhani had to complete his term in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zolnouri continued to call for the president\u2019s impeachment<\/a>, but he backed off from his earlier calls to\u00a0 hang Rouhani<\/a>. The call to impeach Rouhani was silenced when the \u201chardline\u201d lawmakers<\/a> agreed that it was pointless as he was leaving office soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s Parliament wants to take charge to deliver basic goods and expand oversight of the president\u2019s economic policies. Iran\u2019s legislators have publicized a list of government policies\/actions which they say have led to the country\u2019s economic downfall. They are also refusing to review and approve<\/a> some 67 draft bills issued by Rouhani\u2019s government to fix the economy. In another move, Parliament overwhelmingly ruled that the Iranian government must pay monthly subsidies<\/a> to cover the costs of basic goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing rifts in Iran over the handling of the country\u2019s economy point to more significant problems. Rouhani is faulted for wanting to hold fresh talks<\/a> with the United States<\/a>. Iran\u2019s \u201chardliners\u201d dismiss such talks<\/a> as useless<\/a> and disgraceful<\/a>, considering that the US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned not only the government, but also Rouhani\u2019s inner circle including Foreign Minister<\/a> Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister<\/a> Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHardliners\u201d have increased their attacks on Rouhani in recent days, urging him to transfer managerial<\/a> positions from his incapable government<\/a> to more capable bureaucrats. They charge the government with misleading<\/a> the Iranian people, and they want a new government to take charge of the country soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201chardliners\u201d, by labeling Rouhani\u2019s supporters as a \u201cmisleading trend,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 are indicating that Rouhani and the US sanctions are both weakening the Iranian revolution. This indicates that many in the \u201chardline\u201d camp<\/a> strongly feel that Rouhani, knowingly or not, serves US interests by weakening Iran. The \u201chardliners\u201d in Iran are likely to press to reverse Rouhani\u2019s policies<\/a> once he leaves office, including his efforts to build closer ties with the West by signing the 2015 nuclear deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, President Hassan Rouhani has come under intense fire as Iran\u2019s new hardline Parliament takes steps to undermine him. Rouhani is facing strong criticism for failing to salvage Iran\u2019s economy which is suffering from US-led sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5683,410,5684,38,1871],"class_list":["post-8490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-anti-americanism","tag-attacks","tag-attacks-on-rouhani","tag-rouhani","tag-rouhanis-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8490"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9142,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions\/9142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}