In Iran\u2019s major turning points, Hassan Rouhani\u2019s name tends to resurface \u2013 even when he is no longer at the centre of decision-making. And as the Islamic Republic enters a sensitive transitional phase after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint United States-Israeli strike, the question of which figures might be used to calm the domestic arena or rebalance power inside the system has returned to the forefront.<\/p>\n
Rouhani, Iran\u2019s former president (2013\u20132021), a Muslim leader with a doctorate in law, is not an outsider to the system he once promised to \u201creform\u201d. He is a product of it: a longtime parliamentarian, a veteran of the national-security apparatus, and a former chief nuclear negotiator who rose to the presidency in 2013 as a pragmatist offering economic relief through diplomacy.<\/p>\n
The long road through parliament<\/h3>\n
Rouhani was born in 1948 in Sorkheh, in Iran\u2019s Semnan province. He received religious training in the Hawza system (Islamic religious seminary), then studied law at the University of Tehran, before earning a PhD in law from Glasgow Caledonian University in 1999.<\/p>\n
After the revolution, he built his career through parliament. He was elected to the Majlis (Iran\u2019s legislature) for five consecutive terms between 1980 and 2000, giving him practical political experience and longstanding relationships within the elite.<\/p>\n
That background explains part of his later image as a \u201cconsensus man\u201d more than an ideological confrontational leader: someone who moves within the rules of the game, not outside them.<\/p>\n
A \u2018third road\u2019 in Iran\u2019s post-revolution politics<\/h3>\n
To understand Rouhani\u2019s political brand, it helps to place it in a longer arc of post-1979 ideological currents inside the Islamic Republic \u2013 an arc often described in Iranian political writing as a sequence of competing \u201cdiscourses\u201d that nonetheless remained anchored to the revolution and the system\u2019s religious-constitutional framework.<\/p>\n
Iran moved through phases that emphasised different priorities: currents sometimes described as \u201cIslamic left\u201d, \u201cIslamic liberalism\u201d, and a more market-oriented turn under former leader Hashemi Rafsanjani; then a period of \u201cIslamic democracy\u201d and \u201ccivil society\u201d associated with Mohammad Khatami; followed by a social-justice-heavy, populist register under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Rouhani arrived with the language of e\u2018tedal \u2013or \u201cmoderation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Within that framework, \u201cmoderation\u201d presents itself as an attempt to balance what supporters call the system\u2019s two pillars: the \u201cRepublic\u201d (pragmatism, governance, responsiveness) and the \u201cIslamic\u201d (ideals, clerical authority, revolutionary identity). This balance became central to Rouhani\u2019s pitch in 2013: He promised to reduce external pressure, restart economic growth and lower domestic polarisation without challenging the authority structure that ultimately constrains any elected president in Iran.<\/p>\n Between 2003 and 2005, Rouhani led Iran\u2019s delegation in nuclear negotiations with the \u201cEuropean troika\u201d (Britain, France and Germany). He gained a reputation as a \u201cpragmatist\u201d among Western diplomats, while Iranian hardliners accused him of making concessions.<\/p>\n Later, that record became a pillar of his 2013 presidential campaign: a negotiator rather than a confrontationist.<\/p>\n In June that year, Rouhani won the presidency in the first round with more than 50 percent of the vote, avoiding a run-off in an election that saw high turnout.<\/p>\n Rouhani\u2019s signature achievement was the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated between Iran and the P5+1 \u2013 the US, China, Russia, France, United Kingdom and European Union.<\/p>\n Under the deal, the US and its allies lifted the bulk of sanctions imposed on Iran, and allowed Tehran access to more than $100bn in frozen assets. In exchange, Iran agreed to major caps on its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n At home, Rouhani sold the deal as a route to normalise the economy and curb inflation.<\/p>\n In May 2017, Rouhani won a second term with about 57 percent of the vote. Many inside Iran read the result as a bet by the country\u2019s people on continued \u201copening\u201d and reduced isolation.<\/p>\n But the power equation within Iran did not change. The presidency manages day-to-day governance, but it does not decide alone on the security services, the judiciary, the Revolutionary Guards or the core media architecture.<\/p>\n The diplomatic opening proved short-lived. In 2018, US President Donald Trump, in his first term, withdrew Washington from the JCPOA and reimposed sweeping sanctions, sharply limiting the economic gains Rouhani had promised. The reversal weakened Iran\u2019s pragmatists and reformists, who had invested political capital in defending the agreement as the best available route out of isolation\u2013while giving hardliners new ammunition to argue that negotiations with the US cannot deliver durable relief.<\/p>\n Rouhani\u2019s presidency ended in 2021, and with the rise of conservative dominance within Iran\u2019s politics, he appeared to be gradually pushed to the margins. He then became a member of Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts \u2013 the body constitutionally empowered to choose the supreme leader.<\/p>\n But in January 2024, the Reuters news agency reported that the Guardian Council barred Rouhani from running again for the Assembly of Experts.<\/p>\n Two years later, after the February 28 strike that killed Khamenei, the country \u2013 according to the constitution\u2013 entered a temporary arrangement phase until the Assembly of Experts selects a new leader. President Masoud Pezeshkian, Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and Guardian Council member Ayatollah Alireza Arafi form the interim leadership council that are in charge until the Assembly of Experts announces its pick for the next Supreme Leader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And from the hushed conversations and chatter that have emerged from within Iran\u2019s elite circles over potential candidates for the supreme leader\u2019s role, Rouhani\u2019s name has resurfaced.<\/p>\n That possible return to political life, analysts say, is a testament to what Rouhani represents in Iran\u2019s factional geometry: a governing style that privileges tactical compromise, economic management and controlled engagement \u2013 while remaining fundamentally loyal to the Islamic Republic\u2019s constitutional-religious architecture.<\/p>\n As Iran plans Khamenei\u2019s succession, it faces a central question: whether to broaden legitimacy by incorporating pragmatic faces or double down on a security-first posture. Rouhani sits at that crossroads \u2013 not the architect of the system, and no longer a principal decision-maker, but a durable indicator of how far Iran\u2019s establishment is willing to bend without breaking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Iran\u2019s major turning points, Hassan Rouhani\u2019s name tends to resurface \u2013 even when he is no longer at the centre of decision-making. And as the Islamic Republic enters a sensitive transitional phase after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint United States-Israeli strike, the question of which figures might be used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1041691340-1772667479.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C952&quality=80\")
The negotiator and president<\/h3>\n
2017: A second mandate \u2013 and first brush with Trump<\/h3>\n
Post-presidential year \u2013 and a return from political exile?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"