Iran presidential candidate Hassan Rohani[/caption]Across the country, drivers honked horns, men danced to pop music and women clapped, celebrating Mr. Rowhanis campaign pledges to bring more freedom and better relations with the outside world.
But Mr. Rowhani, 64, is no renegade reformist, voted in while Irans leaders were not paying attention. Instead, his political life has been spent at the center of Irans conservative establishment, from well before Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiniled the Islamic Revolution in the 1970s. And analysts say that Mr. Rowhanis first priority will be mediating the disturbed relationship between that leadership and Irans citizens, not carrying out major change.
Even his nickname the diplomat sheik is testament to his role as a pragmatist seeking conciliation for the Islamic leadership. Whether in dealing with protesting students, the aftermath of devastating earthquakes or, in his stint as nuclear negotiator, working to ease international pressure as Iran moved forward with its nuclear program, Mr. Rowhani has worked to find practical ways to help advance the leaderships goals.
Though he is widely seen as a cautious realist, his first leap into Irans inner circle as a young man was rooted in risk. In one of his memoirs, Mr. Rowhani describes a perilous journey he took as an 18-year-old seminary student, sneaking across the border into Iraq to meet Ayatollah Khomeini in exile.
At one point, he recounts, a smuggler told him to immediately take off his turban, in order to be less visible inside their car. More dogmatic Shiite Muslim clerics would have ignored such a request, but the young Mr. Rowhani did not hesitate and quickly removed his white turban.
We arrived safely, and that is what mattered, Mr. Rowhani wrote.
In the memoir, he argues that ideology must never stand in the way of advancement. In 1979, during the last months of Ayatollah Khomeinis exile, Mr. Rowhani was part of his entourage in France. There some people spread leaflets saying Iran must stop buying weapons from the United States, in order not to support their weapons industry, he wrote. But I argued that we must not deprive ourselves of modern weapon technology just because it is American.
While the Iranian leadership considers Islam the basis for all policy, Mr. Rowhani comes from a wing of the clerical establishment that finds Islam to be a more dynamic than rigid code. The thesis he wrote to obtain his doctorate in constitutional law in 1997 from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland,according to his personal Web site, was on the flexibility of Shariah; Islamic law.
His own pragmatic flexibility in the face of ideology was on display in 2003, when Mr. Rowhani visited theearthquake struck-region of Bamwhile serving as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Despite the tensions with the United States, Iran had allowed Americans to set up an emergency hospital, and Mr. Rowhani made it a point to visit it and take photographs with American doctors.
His memoirs and several other books describe a life as an integral part of the fabric of Irans political establishment, forming friendships at an early age with other clerics bound for positions of power and influence within the Islamic republic.
Mr. Rowhani has described a train journey in 1967 that only in hindsight would seem momentous. Along that trip, he befriended a fellow Shiite cleric who is now the influential head of the office of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Also on that train was a cleric who would turn out to become the national prosecutor. Another influential friend from the pre-revolution years was Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president whose endorsement helped ease Mr. Rowhanis road to the presidency.
It is a snapshot in the life of a man set to become an insider in Irans small circle of power.
Because of his dedication to political Islam and influential connections, Mr. Rowhanis star rose quickly. He was the deputy leader of the Iran-Iraq war effort in the 1980s, served in Irans Parliament for 20 years, and for 16 years was in charge of the daily management of the security council, one of the countrys most influential agencies. He is currently the head of theCenter for Strategic Researchin Tehran, which advises both Mr. Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Khamenei.
His lifelong career shows he has been at the heart of Iranian politics and his goal is to serve the Islamic republic of Iran, said Ali Shakouri-Rad, a reformist politician. The very fact he is elected shows that he is very much accepted by our establishment.
On Sunday, in Mr. Rowhanis first major speech since becoming president-elect, that focus was already on display. He warned that the countrys many problems would not be solved overnight, and said he would enter talks with the governing establishment of clerics and commanders for advice.
He is the right man for the job, said Soroush Farhadian, 31, a political editor at the reformist newspaper Bahar. He is a modern cleric, and a diplomat, which is useful in foreign and domestic politics.
The diplomat sheik played a key role inIrans voluntary suspension of uranium enrichmentin 2004, which Western powers responded to by asking for more concessions from Iran.
In Iran, the move is now regarded as a failure, and in the years since, the Iranian leadership has taken a much harder negotiating line.
In his book National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy, on his position as the chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 until 2005, Mr. Rowhani defended himself, arguing that all critical advances in the nuclear program were made during the suspension. We dealt both with increasing outside pressures and the need to make consensus within the country, he wrote.
During the recent election, Mr. Rowhani argued that it was again time to change tactics in the nuclear program and reduce international pressure on Iran.
The nuclear case, he wrote in his book, has turned into the most complicated negotiations Iran has ever held.
It is good for centrifuges to operate, he said in a campaign video, but it is also important that the country operates as well, and that the wheels of industry are turning.
On Sunday, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that there would be no change in nuclear policy. But reformists led by former President Mohammad Khatami, who backed Mr. Rowhani in the election, say it is time for a new approach.
The election result shows that people want a change in the nuclear policy, Mr. Shakouri-Rad said. Now we will wait and see what Mr. Rowhani will do.
By The New York Times
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