Tehran, YJC. Tasnim news has held a round table with a number of critics to discuss affairs as the election outcome suggests.
![](https://cdn.yjc.ir/files/en/news/2013/7/11/6390_315.jpg)
Tasnim news agency held a round table discussion with a number
of critics on Wednesday to address the course of political affairs after the
presidential election.
In this session Abbas Salimi Nami, Amir Mohebian, Abbas
Abdi, and Parviz Amini provided comments on the issue from different angles.
Abbas Abdi believed that Rouhani was the only candidate that
could really be called a politician.
Abdi said "In this election, out of the 6 candidates, the only
one who could really be called a true politician was Rouhani. The others were
not able to prove themselves as politicians. Some were diplomats, but being a
politician in the domestic sphere takes a lot more than being a diplomat.”
Abdi also believed that Rouhani talked much like Khatami. He
said "There was a kind of similarity with Khatami’s words. It gave a sort of
assurance which the multiplicity of forces and people rather liked. Meanwhile,
it lacked the philosophical aspect of Khatami. It was rather scientific and
objective, which I believe was a positive point about him.”
He also said that more than 90 percent of the Iranians are
currently concerned with economic problems such as inflation and unemployment. He
said that the main obstacles to economic growth are political ones, both in
domestic and foreign affairs. "I believe that in his speeches, Mr. Rouhani made
more references to these two issues than anything else.”
Abbas Salimi Namin then said in turn that in the course of
2013 presidential elections the Reform movement was removed in favor of the
Construction Party.
He believed that the disqualification of Hashemi greatly
contributed to his status prior to the elections, which naturally lead to the Reform
movement fading out.
He also said that the Principalist candidates miscalculated
the circumstances by believing that the real opponent is one of themselves,
neglecting the other side entirely.
Salimi Namin also believed that Ahmadinejad was an ally to
the Reform movement in working against Qalibaf. He said "Ahmadinejad had
managed to form a radical current indirectly. This current was the Resistance Front
which mustered all its power to deface Qalibaf.”
He stated that while Ahmadinejad had outwardly implied to be
supporting Jalili, some of those close to him voted for Rouhani in fact, only
out of opposition to the Principalist side.
Amir Mohebian then expressed his views, saying that Jalili
turned out to be a help to Rouhani. He said "If Rouhani and Qalibaf ran to the
runoff or they would have been to compete only each other things would have
been just like that. People would have seen both of them as pragmatists, that
is, they held low degrees of idealism and no contrast would have existed
between them.”
"Therefore a third party was needed, which turned out to be Jalili.
The Resistance Front and parallel currents, or whoever it was that controlled
the case, in fact created a figure which would give that formula to flight,” he
continued.
He further believed that it was Hashemi who controlled the Reform
movement in the 2013 elections by kindly asking Khatami to run for presidency. "Probably
from his political experience, Mr. Hashemi could tell that if he was
disqualified, there would arise a force which would be directed towards the one
who was considered as an alternative for him.”
Parviz Amini also said that Jalili was a politically
impotent figure. "He was not able to tap the ideological current and the fixed
votes, he could only turn them into votes in the boxes, but was unable to turn
them into a social current which would fill the country with his presence and
mottos,” he said.
Amini also believed that one of the major strategic errors
by the 2+1 coalition was their unchanging arrangement where Qalibaf was the
chief representative. He also said that the coalition was further unable to
give an image of itself against the social status quo.
He further asserted that it is politically rash to call Rouhani
a Principalist. "When you say that the moderation has won the election, you are
admitting that you are a radical current,” he said.