Rouhani faces major challenges as Iran's new president (3)

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Rouhani faces major challenges as Iran's new president (3)

By Xinhua writers Yang Dingdu, He Guanghai (Xinhua) 10:02, August 04, 2013

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Most of the problems Rouhani needs to solve stem from troubled relations with the West. Rouhani's chances of success in meeting the demands of his voters and settling Iran's main issues "depends entirely on correcting the foreign policy," Zibakalam said.

Rouhani is facing a major obstacle in straightening out the country's foreign policy. "The first is the opposition of the radicals in the United States and in Israel who do not want Mr. Rouhani to succeed," he added.

From their point of view, "if Mr. Rouhani succeeds, it means the survival of the Islamic revolution and this is something that the radicals in the West do not want," he said.

Besides the Western pressures, the domestic political texture of the country is a scene of battles for wining positions. Iranian conservatives fear that they may lose key posts, including Foreign Ministry, on which they held their grips tightly over the past eight years.

In recent days, the Iranian incoming president has been under pressures from the conservative camps to avoid granting key positions of his cabinet to the reformists. He is well aware that in case he brushes off their demands, he may infuriate the conservative-dominated parliament and fail to survive a vote of confidence for his ministerial nominees.

Zibakalam believes that there is another obstacle for Rouhani to tackle as far as foreign relations are concerned.

The hardliners inside the country "don't want Rouhani to succeed either, he said, adding that Iranian hardliners are in collusion with their Western counterparts in preventing Rouhani from success.

"So, Rouhani has two serious obstacles before him... It is very difficult to imagine how he can overcome these two major obstacles, " said the Iranian expert.

If Rouhani fails to improve relations with the West, particularly the United States, and fails to make progress in the nuclear negotiations with the world powers, "I don't think he can make much improvement domestically," he concluded.