Word: atrianfar
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...There is a bipolarity in Iranian politics right now," says Mohammad Atrianfar, a political analyst in Tehran. "The change they were seeking in the U.S. is happening here too. People are trying to unseat Ahmadinejad." There are also plenty of people who want the current President to stay, and Ahmadinejad has styled himself as the candidate of change itself, the anticorruption revolutionary the Islamic republic needs for its revival. But while an Ahmadinejad victory would mean more of the same populist economics and antagonism toward a "hostile" U.S., a Mousavi upset could herald the revival of reformist politics in Iran...
Moderates from Iran's religious establishment say détente is still possible even without an Arab-Israeli settlement. The U.S. and Iran, says Mohammad Atrianfar, a newsmagazine editor and unofficial mouthpiece for the camp led by Rafsanjani, should set up a system of diplomacy much like that between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the cold war, to prevent disagreements from turning into open conflict. "The only thing we want from the United States is for them not to mess with our country," he says. But that would mean the U.S. accepting Iran's right to have a nonmilitary...
...Iranians are divided on Hillary Clinton, largely basing their views on the record in the Middle East of her husband, who Iranians expect would effectively be her senior foreign policy adviser. Mohammed Atrianfar, an adviser to former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, argues that Bill Clinton has a "peace-seeking image" among Iranians. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, now a Hillary adviser, publicly accepted American responsibility for involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran and subsequent support for the repressive regime of the Shah. Iranian diplomats complain, however, that Clinton also imposed economic sanctions on Iran...
...appears to have been a reaffirmation of the status quo."The election results are nothing but a continuation of the conditions that had been created, including the disqualifications. We knew even before the elections were held that about 60% of the seats would go to the conservatives," commented Mohammad Atrianfar, an advisor to technocratic forces around the likes of former President Akbar Rafsanjani. "But the situation speaks for itself," he added, pointing to the fact that the Tehran candidate with the highest votes, current Majles Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, still received a million votes less than the leading reformist...
...reformists" gradually fortifying into a "real, strategic coalition." These two groups are closer to each other than either is to Ahmadinejad's camp in terms of their pragmatic outlook on foreign policy and the economy. With about a third of the new parliament consisting of reformist and independent candidates, Atrianfar says there is a good chance that this bloc could attract critical members among conservatives, especially if Ahmadinejad continues with his inflationary economic and confrontational foreign policies. That would increase the chances of a "critical coalition" among reformists and conservatives to pave the way for a pragmatic political force...