The honeymoon that Iran’s hard-liners extended to President Hassan Rouhani after his June 2013 election is coming to an end. As they have in the past, particularly during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, the conservative factions within the state are reasserting their power against a perceived reformist threat.
The verbal warfare among political elites in Iran centers on the interim nuclear deal Tehran signed with Washington and other world powers and the ongoing negotiations that have already come to define Rouhani’s presidency. Not since Khatami’s two terms in office, from 1997 to 2005, has an Iranian leader made such significant overtures to improve relations with the West and the United States in particular.
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