Rouhani says U.S. election result has no impact on Iran’s policy
By Gunay Hasanova
The result of the U.S. presidential election has no impact on the Islamic Republic’s policy, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said.
Rouhani made the remarks commenting on Republican Donald Trump's victory at the U.S. presidential election, Iran’s state-run IRINN TV reported on November 9.
Rouhani further said that the nuclear deal is independent of the administrations’ decision and cannot be overturned by the government’s change.
“Iran’s sagacity was in having the nuclear deal endorsed as a resolution by the UN Security Council and not just an agreement with a single country or administration, so it cannot be changed by decisions of one government,” Rouhani said.
The P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the UK, the U.S. as well as Germany) reached a historic deal with Iran last year to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for lifting the nuclear-related sanctions. The deal came into force in January.
Trump has severely criticized the nuclear deal during his presidential campaign.
He has said that would rip up the Iran nuclear deal, which was aimed at curbing the nation's ability to acquire nuclear arms.
"The nuclear deal puts Iran, the number one state sponsor of radical Islamic terrorism, on a path to nuclear weapons," Trump said in one of his convention speeches.
In turn, experts hold controversial views regarding the fate of nuclear deal and Trump’s upcoming policy about Iran.
"With regard to Iran, Trump has talked about hard power and put on agenda the confrontation with Iran," Mehdi Motaharnia, futurist and political science professor at Tehran Islamic Azad University told Trend. "He has pledged to Americans that if U.S. warships are threatened by Iranian fast boats, he will order an attack on them. He also said he will tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This resembles campaign talk rather than policy that Trump would be able to carry out.”
Dr. Motaharnia believes that the victory of Trump today creates some populism is America, populism that Iran tacitly took as deconstruction in the U.S., Iranian leaders having endorsed his statements. "But it was not kept out of mind that what happens in the U.S. is a democratic system which even provides its de-constructers with the chance to become president," he underlined.
Regarding Trump’s pledged foreign policy;, he said that the new U.S. president will be able to develop grounds for convergence with Moscow and work toward closer positions on global conflicts.
Russia is Iran’s ally in such regional conflicts as Syria’s, which has turned into a hot issue of debate between Iran and the U.S.
Russia also backed Iran during its long talks with the world powers to reach a nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, some experts think that Trump’s statements can be more than just a campaign talk and lead to more tensions in the world.
Some officials believe that if Trump adopts hostile policies towards Iran, this will empower hardliners in Iran and unite their supporters, which in fact hints at more political pressure and aggressive regional policy.
During the election campaign, Trump described Iran as the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and dismissed the nuclear accord as "one of the worst deals I've ever seen negotiated."
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif urged him to stay committed to the Iran deal.
Although President Hassan Rouhani said the election result would not affect Iran's policies and the nuclear accord could not be dismissed by one government, there are experts who consider Trump’s victory to affect the new presidential elections results in Iran, as well as, Iran’s economy.
"Now with Trump's victory, even the European companies will be reluctant to invest in Iran ... in the best-case scenario they will adopt the policy of 'wait and see'," said a senior Economy Ministry official to Reuters.
The official also stressed that this would "harm the credibility of Rouhani and his economic plans."
Iran, which has a population of 80 million, was the biggest economy to rejoin the global trading and financial system since the Soviet break-up in 1991.
However, many foreign investors are put off by obstacles to doing business in Iran such as the poor state of banks that were long outside the international financial system, the state's big role in the economy and a lack of clarity about the legal system.
Europe's largest banks have been reluctant to finance deals because they fear they could run incur financial penalties by violating U.S. sanctions that remain in force.
"With Trump's victory, major and even medium-sized foreign companies, banks and other investors will be more cautious ... to invest in Iran," said Tehran-based businessman Reza Sardari.
"This will harm the economy just when we were hoping to attract foreign investors."
So, given multiple approaches to the president-elect Trump’s future foreign policy, it is only the time to show the end of affairs.
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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova
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