Rouhani wins Iran's presidential election - but don't be fooled , he isn't a moderate. The fact that not only was he allowed to win in the first round , in a country run by hardline clerics , establishes he is not a moderate. To the point - the fact he was allowed to run , established that he could not be anything other than a cleric blessed hardliner in sheep's clothing .....Immediately after the election , note what Iran just announced !

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-16/iran-sends-4000-troops-aid-syrias-assad ( Election out of the way , Iran wasted no time getting down to business..... )  Iran Sends 4,000 Troops To Aid Syria's Assad Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/16/2013 11:37 -0400 Afghanistan   Iran   Iraq   Israel   Middle East   Obama Administration   Turkey   United Kingdom While the world awaits Russia's formal response to last week's US escalation in Syria (as Putin demonstratively arrived an hour late for talks on Syria with UK PM David Cameron) another country: Iran - fresh from an election in which moderate candidate Hassan Rohani became the new president - is taking matters into its own hands. The Independent Reports that "a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel." If it was the west's desire all along to drag Iran into the Syrian escalation, and thus shoot two birds with one cluster bomb, Iran may have just happily obliged. So while we now await for Israel in turn to ratchet up the war rhetoric one more time, perhaps while punctuating its sentences with the occasional bomb over Syrian soil, here is the Independent with a comprehensive analysis on how America, courtesy of its now formalized support of the Syrian mercenaries rebels, suddenly finds itself in uncharted territory: "For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East." More: In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for  2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”. America’s alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan – flooded, like so many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees – may also now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle.  Up to 3,000 American ‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern Syria ‘no-fly zone’ – opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries – will turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war.  So much for America’s ‘friends’. Its enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power.  Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces. Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East.  Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. For the real reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad.  The Damascus regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of  Qusayr, at the cost of Hizballah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for Assad to abandon power.  Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed – unless they are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf – not to be sustained.  Yet Russia has given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil war. In the Middle East, there is cynical disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms – almost certainly including anti-aircraft missiles – only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army.  The more powerful al-Nusrah Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy.  They will be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with little effort. From now on, therefore, every suicide bombing in Damascus - every war crime committed by the rebels - will be regarded in the region as Washington’s responsibility. The very Sunni-Wahabi Islamists who killed thousands of Americans on 11th September, 2011 – who are America’s greatest enemies as well as Russia’s – are going to be proxy allies of the Obama administration. This terrible irony can only be exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adament refusal to tolerate any form of Sunni extremism.  In short: meet the new world axis and allies, conveniently split by the Syria proxy war (h/t Xue): Rouhani wins Iran's presidential election

Hassan Rouhani is declared winner of the presidential election after getting more than 18 million of the votes. Last Modified: 15 Jun 2013 16:22

Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani has been elected the president of Iran, the Interior minister has announced. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told a press conference on Saturday that Rouhani had won Iran's presidential election with more than 18 million of the votes. Najjar said 72 percent of the 50 million eligible Iranians had turned out to vote, and that Rouhani had secured just over the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a run-off. His closest rival, Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, garnered six million votes. Al Jazeera's Soraya Lenni, reporting from Tehran, said that all Rouhani needed was 50 percent plus one vote in order to avoid a run-off. "Everybody was predicting a very close race and that this would end in a run-off between Rouhani and Qalibaf," our correspondent said. She said that everything had run quite smoothly on election day. "There were long lines at polling stations, but everything was quite orderly," she added. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still has about a month and a half of his presidency left and then Rouhani will be sworn in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Rouhani Hassan Rouhani (also transliterated as Rohani and Rowhani; Persian: ‌حسن روحانی‎; born Hassan Fereydoun, ‌حسن فریدون; on 12 November 1948) is an Iranian politician, diplomat and academic and thePresident-elect of Iran. He has been a member of the Assembly of Experts since 1999,[2] member of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Expediency Council since 1991,[3] member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989,[4] and head of the Center for Strategic Research since 1992.[5] Rouhani has been also deputy speaker of the 4th and 5th terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005.[5] In this capacity, he was also heading Iran’s former nuclear negotiating team and was the country’s top negotiator with the EU-3 – UK, France, and Germany – on the Iran’s nuclear program.[6]:138 On 7 May 2013, Rouhani registered for the presidential election that was held on 14 June 2013.[7][8] He said that he will prepare a “civil rights charter”, restore the economy and improve rocky relations with the West if he is elected.[9][10][11] As early vote counts began coming in, Rouhani took a large lead. [12] He was announced the winner on the next day, with receiving 18,613,329 of the votes.[13][14] As a young cleric Hassan Rouhani started his political activities by following Ayatollah Khomeini during the beginning of the Iranian Islamic movement. In 1965 he began traveling throughout Iran making speeches against the government of the Shah. During those years he was arrested many times and was banned from delivering public speeches.[15]:232 During November 1977, in a public ceremony held at Tehran's Ark Mosque to commemorate the death ofMostafa Khomeini, Rouhani used the title “Imam” for Ayatollah Khomeini (the exiled leader of the Islamic movement) for the first time.[15]:375 Since he was prosecuted by the SAVAK, Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti and Ayatollah Motahhari advised him to leave the country.[15]:385 Once outside Iran he made public speeches to Iranian students studying abroad and joined Khomeini upon arriving in Paris.[15]:410 After the Islamic Revolution[edit] Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who had been engaged in revolutionary struggles for about two decades, did his best to stabilize the nascent Islamic Revolutionand as a first step, he started with organizing the disorderly Iranian army and military bases.[15]:515 He was elected to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) in 1980. During five terms in the Majlis and for a total period of 20 years (from 1980 to 2000), he served in various capacities including deputy speaker of the Majlis (in 4th and 5th terms), as well as the head of defense committee (1st and 2nd terms), and foreign policy committee (4th and 5th terms). Heading Supervisory Council of the IRIB from 1980 to 1983 was among the responsibilities he shouldered in the post-revolution era.[5] During the Iran-Iraq war, Rouhani was a member of the Supreme Defense Council (1982-1988), member of the High Council for Supporting War and headed its Executive Committee (1986-1988), deputy commander of the war (1983-1985), commander of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya Operation Center (1985-1988), and commander of the Iran Air Defense Force (1986-1991).[5] He was appointed as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (1988-1989).[5] At the end of the war, Hassan Rouhani was awarded the second-grade Fath (Victory) Medal along with a group of commanders of the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards. In another ceremony on the occasion of the liberation of Khoramshahr, he and a group of other officials and military commanders who were involved in the war with Iraq were awarded first-grade Nasr Medal by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ayatollah Khamenei. After the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was amended and the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) came into being up to the present time, he has been representative of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, at the council.[5] Rouhani was the first secretary of the SNSC and kept it for 16 years (from 1989 to 2005). He was also national security advisor – to President Hashemiand President Khatami – for 13 years (from 1989 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2005).[5] In 1991, Rouhani was appointed to the Expediency Council and has kept that post up to the present time. He heads Political, Defense, and Security Committee of the Expediency Council.[5] In the midterm elections for the third term of the Assembly of Experts which was held on 18 February 2000, Rouhani was elected to the Assembly of Experts from Semnan Province. He was elected as Tehran Province's representative to the Assembly’s fourth term in 2006 and is still serving in that capacity. he was the head of the political and social committee of the assembly of experts (from 2001 to 2006), member of the presiding board, and head of Tehran office of the secretariat of the assembly (from 2006 to 2008). In addition to executive posts, Rouhani kept up his scientific activities. From 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the board of trustees of Tehran Universities and North Region. Rouhani has been running the Center for Strategic Research since 1991. He is the managing editor of three scientific and research quarterlies in Persian and English, which include Rahbord (Strategy), Foreign Relations, and Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs. Nuclear Dossier[edit] Hashemi Rafsanjani and his deputy, Rouhani, saying code words for Operation Karbala-5 in Iran-Iraq war, 8 February, 1987[23]:755 Rouhani was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for 16 years. His career at the Council began under President Hashemi Rafsanjani and continued under his successor, PresidentKhatami. His term as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, however, was limited to 678 days (from 6 October 2003 to 15 August 2005). That period began with international revelations about Iran’s nuclear energy program and adoption of a strongly-worded resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In June 2004, the Board of Governors of the IAEA issued a statement which was followed by a resolution in September of the same year, which focused on Iran’s nuclear case with the goal of imposing difficult commitments on Iran. That development was concurrent with the victory of the United States in Iraq war and escalation of war rhetoric in the region. The international community was experiencing unprecedented tensions as a result of which Iran’s nuclear advances were considered with high sensitivity.[6]:120-126 Iran-EU3's first meeting, Tehran, Iran, 21 October 2003. As tensions increased and in view of the existing differences between Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Atomic Energy Organization, a proposal was put forth by foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, which was accepted by the president and other Iranian leaders. According to that proposal, a decision was made to establish a politically, legally, and technically efficient nuclear team with Hassan Rouhani in charge. The team was delegated with special powers in order to formulate a comprehensive plan for Iran’s interactions with the IAEA and coordination among various concerned organizations inside the country. Therefore, on the order of President Mohammad Khatami with the confirmation of Ali Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani took charge of Iran’s nuclear case on October 6, 2003.[6]:138-140 Subsequently, negotiations between Iran and three European states started at Saadabad in Tehran and continued in later months in Brussels, Geneva andParis. Rouhani and his team, whose members had been introduced by Velayati and Kharrazi as the best diplomats in the Iranian Foreign Ministry,[6]:109,141based their efforts on dialogue and confidence building due to political and security conditions as well as strong propaganda against Iran. As a first step, they prevented further escalation of accusations against Iran in order to prevent reporting Iran’s nuclear case to the United Nations Security Council. Therefore, and for the purpose of confidence building, certain parts of Iran’s nuclear activities were voluntarily suspended at several junctures. In addition to building confidence, insisting on Iran’s rights, reducing international pressures and the possibility of war, and preventing Iran’s case from being reported to the UN Security Council, Iran succeeded in completing its nuclear fuel cycle and took groundbreaking steps.[6]:660-667 However, decisions made by the nuclear team under the leadership of Rouhani were criticized by certain circles in later years.[24][25] Following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, Rouhani resigned his post as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council after 16 years on August 15, 2005,[6]:594,601 and was succeeded by Ali Larijani as the new secretary who also took charge of Iran’s nuclear case. Larijani, likewise, could not get along with the policies of the new government and resigned his post on October 20, 2007, to be replaced by Saeed Jalili. Nuclear Memoirs[edit] The book, entitled National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy, contains the memoirs of Rouhani as the official in charge of Iran’s nuclear case and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. It gives an account of how decisions are made in Iran’s political system as well as the role of high-ranking institutions in the nuclear case and all stages of negotiations with the European countries along with the relevant documents[citation needed]. National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy is compiled in 12 chapters and seven appendices in 1,209 pages and the first book so far published on Iran’s nuclear energy program and is considered an oral history book. Its fifth edition appeared in winter of 2013. Excerpts of the book along with photos of nuclear negotiations were also published as Narration of Foresight and Hope in 552 pages in March 2013. The Diplomat Sheikh[edit] Although Rouhani had already appeared as a diplomat and taken part in many meetings and negotiations with foreign officials as Majlis deputy speaker or the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, it was his leading role in the nuclear negotiations which brought him the nickname of “diplomat Sheikh.” This nickname was first given to him by the nascent Sharq newspaper in November 2003 and was frequently repeated after that by domestic and foreign Persian-speaking media. Rouhani has been the sole clerical member of Iran’s nuclear team up to the present time.