Blog prompt 3: Iranian elections
The presidential elections in Iran were held on the 18th of June 2021, the thirteenth since the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979. Despite not being familiar with the elections at the time, after doing some extensive research I have concluded that the candidate I would vote for is Mohsen Rezaee. What first grabbed my attention is his partaking in a guerilla rebel group Mansouroun, which I would argue is often the start of many great leaders. An Iranian conservative politician affiliated with the resistance front of Islamic Iran. What sets him apart from the rest of the candidates is his ability to maintain high levels of popularity among the public all the while having deep connections to the regime insiders including the Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei. He has this cult of personality based on his two key principles, challenging the orthodox regime as well as his advocacy for diplomacy during the conflict. His position within the election, which I’ll be looking into in more detail can be divided into two main policies. His foreign policy’s embodying diplomacy as well as his economic policies centered around monopolizing Iran’s economy.
Rezaee’s political journey is an interesting one unlike his competitors he is not a lifelong politician with a career free from corruption scandals or criminal probes. Just before entering politics, he had a reputation for being a pragmatic leader during the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he spoke up against his hardline foreign and domestic policies. Furthermore, his diplomatic efforts in the late 1980s as a commander in the Iran-Iraq war advocated for diplomacy to resolve the conflict making enemies with the Islamic revolutionary guard corps who believed in conflict as the only legitimate path. More recently Rezaees foreign policies have set forth commitments to lift sanctions for the betterment of domestic wellbeing. In return, he argues against nuclear weaponry advancements as ‘political wisdom requires not to chase weapons that can destroy the entire humanity.’
Furthermore, his economic policies are quite controversial as the secretary of the supreme council for economic coordination as well as the Iranian government's economic committee. When Rezaee was appointed as the vice president for economic affairs analysts suggest that he worked independently of the economic team and government thus promising to increase the wealth of the poor. Amongst the promise he made during the elections, was to stabilize the Iranian currency rial, and make it the strongest currency in the region- after the dollar and euro.
Mohsen Rezaee represents his government to be ‘inclusive and hopeful.’ What sets him apart from the rest of the candidates is the potential his movement has in breaking the deadlock negotiations in bringing Iran a major player in the global. Furthermore, he’s notable for his call for the end of the economic embargo on Iran and his willingness to start negotiations on reform nuclear developments. He’s clearly not afraid of standing out from the current political atmosphere another reason why I would vote for him.
Hannan,
ReplyDeleteI think you give a really well rounded description of the potential benefits of having Rezaee as president of Iran. Your dissection of his past in correlation with his goals and current position in the government gives a really good scope on why one would want Rezaee as president, especially given his more contemporary and radical ideas for the Iranian state. The only thing is that I wonder if the radical nature of his plans would be too contradictory to current systems and expectations of government in Iran, and that perhaps for the current political culture he could bring an overwhelming amount of change especially with his views on foreign policy (not that this is a bad thing, just a consideration).
I do see how his policies could be radical but I would argue that this could be something that Iran needs. The overwhelming change in his foreign policy's are something that brings benefit to the domestic state which is currently negatively effecting the people.
DeleteThank you Hannan for this informative piece. I understand that your vote was casted for Mohsen Rezaee because of his openness to be part of the international political scene and not close off Iran from the world like previous leaders or some of the other candidates. I've also done some research and I found that to be interesting. However, you can compare Rezaee to some of the other candidates who also hope to include Iran in the global political scene. Ebrahim Raïssi was one of the candidates also hoping to globalize Iran's political voice and influence. My question to you, however, is do you think Rezaee is that much different than other candidates or most of them pretty follow a certain political ideology?
ReplyDeleteThis is incredibly interesting for me personally as I have no prior knowledge of this politician. That being said, I thought you did a really good job of giving a synopsis of what he stands for, as reading it from the perspective of someone who is entirely ignorant on the subject. Politicians who deviate from the norm are always interesting to watch in elections, as they might have true and pure intentions and genuinely want to keep their promises, but I find that sometimes once they enter office they start following roughly the same path as their predecessors. This is not to think that these leaders are inherently liars, simply making promises to win elections, but I am always curious as to what information they find out once they obtain this position that changes their trajectory. I wonder if this would have been the case if he had won, or if he would held to his ideas of how to run Iran even after obtaining power.
ReplyDeleteI found your post and discussion of Mohsen Rezaee to be very interesting. One thing I found to be particularly interesting was your argument that many great leaders start by partaking in guerilla rebel groups. Though I don’t have a lot of factual information on the issue, I would assume that leaders are thrust into power when guerilla warfare tactics work, not that they become better leaders because of guerilla rebel tactics or values. I would be interested to hear you discuss this point further.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannan! This post is super interesting and educational to me as I don't really have much knowledge on these particular elections and candidates. I also thought your different points as to why you found Rezaee to be a good candidate were interesting because some of the same points would make him not ideal me for. But, I think the amount of change he wants to implement is intriguing and also his history tainted with some scandal also makes me want to look into him more because it seems like his perspectives on some things may be unique and that could be a refreshing and good thing. Overall, a great and super informative post!
ReplyDelete-Margie Winter