Summoned to parliament amid a growing crisis that has seen the sacking of the Iranian finance and labor ministers, President Hassan Rouhani has faced a vote of formal censure. The hardliners in parliament criticized Rouhani’s economic policy and rejected his explanation for recent struggles.
The censure in theory isn’t a huge matter, but does suggest a practical turning point in Iranian politics, as the reformist Rouhani was lambasted by hardliners on live TV and publicly blamed for a currency collapse and surging inflation.
US officials have presented the collapse of the Iranian rial as a function of their sanctions. Rouhani and other officials in his government have pinned it on mismanagement by bureaucrats, and pushed for more reforms, saying that Iran can definitely weather the US sanctions.
But in his comments, Rouhani saw bigger problems on the horizon, warning that he believes many people have lost faith in the future of Iran’s Islamic Republic, and doubt it will survive. Though he sees both US hostility and economic problems as something Iran can overcome, retaining the public confidence is another matter, and one the political hardliners could clearly look to exploit.
I think article is somehow misleading. The problem Rouhani faces is simple. He came to power as an “reformer”, which translates to pro-liberal economic policies. When he got the nuclear deal, he — and the wealthiest part of Iranian society took it as an affitmation of their push for liberalization. Liberalization always brings higher profits to trading elites, and mire insecurity and drop in living standards for the rest. Rouhani and his most vical wealthy supporters always had something of an stanoffish attitude to “Iranian revolution”, a shorthand for institutions that keep stability in Iran, while fractions in parliament bicker. Now, that Iran’s nuclear deal was pulled from under reformers’ feet, it became patently clear that liberalization removed the safeguards and opened economy to exteenal medfling and flim-flammery. So, it is not the problem of confidence in Islamic Republic, it is a problem of confidence in liberalizing gurus that led economy and banking down the primtose path, with no protection. The hardliners — most of them are supporters of Republic’s institutions — may have some Trojan horses in their ranks, pretending to be agsinst Rouhani, but in fact badmouthing anything that stands in the way to getting their interests lose. However, Army has very good reputation, so does law enforcement. It makes it harder for Rouhani to blame some corrupt officials. Not mentioning American sanctions as cause of crisis, just makes him look unnecesarily bad. Rouhani weathered many storms before, this time, he may have to part company with the “reformers”, as they are at the moment toxic.