Raisi — Hawks’ delight
There is very little common ground between anti-Iran, anti-Ayatollah American thinktankers and politicians, and their opposite numbers in Tehran, but getting a hardline, right-wing, anti-American into the highest political office in Persia is one of them, strange as it sounds.
Raisi was described as “the true face of the Islamic Republic, while Rouhani is a façade,” by legacy regime change neocon hawk Elliott Abrams, who wrote an essay entitled: “Why I’m Rooting for the Hardliner in Iran’s Elections: Two cheers for Ibrahim Raisi!”
Senior Research Associate at the National Iranian American Council Sina Toosi, details for Responsible Statecraft how right-wing hardliners in both nations use each other’s rhetoric to legitimize their position.
“The ongoing negotiations that began in April in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal showcase the degree of common interests between hardliners on both sides,” he wrote. “The anti-diplomacy efforts of right-wing forces in the United States are playing right into the hands of Iran’s most zealous elements, who require anti-Americanism as a legitimizing force. Hardline opponents of the moderate Rouhani administration in Iran are themselves currently in a fury to stop the Vienna talks and the nuclear deal’s revival”.
A progressive writer during World War I, Randolph Bourne described war as “the health of the state,” a quote he’d become famous for. With both war hawks in Tehran and in Washington preferring Raisi, Bourne’s assessment seems of paramount importance.
However, with the fifth round of talks regarding the reentry of Iran and the U.S. into compliance with the Nuclear Deal, and a sixth round in the making, Raisi has said publicly he will look to implement the Supreme Leader Khamenei’s decision to negotiate with the West.
“We will be committed to the JCPOA as an agreement that was approved by the supreme leader,” Raisi said during a debate on June 12th.
In the fifth round of talks in Vienna, Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi tried to hand whatever moderates were left in the running for president a victory point when he stated “there are some key issues that need to be resolved and there is agreement on the rest”.
But Raisi was always the suspected winner, and talk that the hardline cleric with his strong understanding of “Ijtihad” (Sharia jurisprudence) would be the successor to Khamenei made it even more forgone.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet described Raisi as the “hangman of Tehran,” during his first official cabinet meeting. Raisi’s support of Palestinian freedom could be a major regional security concern, as retaliation for hostile Israeli actions, such as the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, is probably a much greater possibility than under former-President Rouhani.
Time will tell, but for now, hawks on both sides of the Atlantic seem to have gotten their wish at Rouhani’s departure. WaL
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