Addressing
a stadium packed with young voters, presidential contender Hassan Rouhani asked
his audience to overcome their frustration over the lack of jobs and Iran’s
diminishing global stature and back him in the June 14 election.
Highlights
of the speech:
- Some people do not want the situation of the last eight years to change. They still want the path of the past eight years to continue.
- Some still are proud of national poverty and global humiliation.
- I will restore Iranian pride and self-esteem.
- With your help and your support, I will restore the national power.
- Let’s put an end to extremism. Let’s stop the rouge elements. We want the implementation of laws in this country.
- To you gentlemen who have caused this (grave) situation in the country: People do not want you anymore.
- to those gentlemen, you’ve insulted the governments of reconstruction (Rafsanjani) and reforms (Khatami).
- If I (form the government), I will restore respect for the university and the students; I will restore respect to women.
- Why should we have political prisoners. We should free all (political) prisoners.
- With the help of our hardworking police, I will restore true security on the streets of the cities… I will not allow agents without uniform stop anyone for questioning.
- I would make changes to parts of the Article Three of the Constitution on people’s right, will send them to Majlis, and will present to the nation through legal channels… In civil laws, men and women should be equal; the Kurds, Turks, Fars (Persians), Baluch, Turkmen and Arabs should be equal.
- The ones who have been expelled from the universities, and managers who have been expelled from the workplace, for expressing their views will be allowed to return.
- Good Luck! We Are Victorious!
“Rouhani’s
rhetoric, his appearance and his campaign, he’s the closest among candidates in
this race to a reformist,” said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Middle East
politics at Qatar University. “He could attract some of the young voters.”
(Bloomberg, 9 June)
Video credit: Iranian presidential candidate Hassan Rouhani speaks to supporters
during the campaign rally on June 9, 2013 in Tehran. (YouTube)
7 comments:
MR Uskowi
Check the headlines plz. Some reporting a possible disqualification of Rohani by Guardian Councils on the ground of revealing "State secrets" in the 3:rd televised debate. If that is true or happen, then this will be a 100 times worse that the disqualification of Rafsanjani and will reveal the true face of a military dictatorship.
Rouhani says something different, not as those distorted word of this article...
In reality the economy and nuclear issue will define this election and Saeed Jalili with his strong defence and national security credentials in turning out to be the front runner. He is also the current head of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, considered as a front-runner by most of Iranian media. Jalili has a very good understanding of the Rahbar's thinking and has consistently maintained a hard-line negotiation posture in the fruitless multilateral rounds of wasted "negotiations" and has made no secret of his intention to "stand up to the West" as Iran's next president.
Latest regional dynamics and Iran's closer strategic ties with Russia has also strengthened Iran's international position as US and EU are mired in an economic mess and political collapse as more scandals about US police state and CIA snooping are exposed. The lost war is Afghanistan is also consuming more US deadbeat resources as the tempo of resistance attacks increases due to a pro-taliban Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan. Iran's status as the only regional superpower has been further enhanced by the Syrian-Hezbollah winning axis of resistance. Saeed Jalili will further strengthen ties with Syria, Iraq, Hezbollah and other pro-Iran nations. Middle east politics are image based as Iran's obvious status as the winner has given a brighter shine to the Islamic Republic.
No matter who wins, Iran's nuclear program will continue as the "sanctions", lose all credibility as Iran integrates more with Asian economy and US regional position weakens by the day. Indeed, no knowledgeable policy expert in Iran will pin any hope in any policy shift by the US dominated by the Zionists and AIPAC, and in light of a lame-duck unimaginative Barack Obama's record of kow-towing to Israel's prescriptions for "crippling sanctions" on Iran.
Considering the confident mood of the Iranian electorate and with the expectations of an "epic battle ahead" with the US/Zionists on the nuclear issue, Iranian voters are now offered clear view points, and if public opinion and media predictions are right, Iranians may yet opt for the more militant and nationalistic Jalili, who epitomizes national resistance and unshakable faith in Iran's manifest destiny as major power able to withstand any challenge. Recent positive regional developments in Iran's favor from Turkey to Syria have only strengthened Jalili and the conservative factions.
The Speaker of the "Guardian Council" has denied this. Latest report.
He is saying the right things, but would he be allowed to do what is right? If he means what he says I will vote for him. However the sceptic in me always reminds me of this famous quote from Stalin:
"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes.
This is a literal translation from Persian to English of the words spoken by Mr. Rouhani at the event as shown in the video. Sentence by sentence.
A great speech. Assuming he can get the majority vote and then being accepted by the military- supreme leader establishment as the elected president, the question is then, will he be "allowed" to bring any real changes to the foreign policy, nuclear negotiations, and other important issues that are decided by the kameieni and IRGC Highly doubtful.
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