Aftermath of Iran's Presidential Elections

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In The Media

Aftermath of Iran's Presidential Elections

The surprise announcement that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won outright the first round of Iran’s presidential election has been met with widespread allegations of fraud and domestic unrest.

By Karim Sadjadpour

Published on Jun 14, 2009

Source: CSPAN's Washington Journal

The surprise announcement that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won outright the first round of Iran’s presidential election has been confronted with widespread allegations of fraud within Iran and domestic unrest. Karim Sadjadpour discusses the results of the Iranian elections and the role of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, "Presidential elections are not for the most powerful post in Iran. The most powerful post is held by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. That is an unelected position and Khamenei has held this position for twenty years now, so he's going to have to be the major arbiter in this situation but it's widely believed, and I think it's correctly believed, that Ayatollah Khamenei essentially selected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Ahmadinejad is a Khamenei man. So he's not exactly an objective arbitrator in this situation."

About the Author

Karim Sadjadpour

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

Recent Work

Q&A
What’s Keeping the Iranian Regime in Power—for Now
- Aaron David Miller, Karim Sadjadpour, Robin Wright
Q&A
How Washington and Tehran Are Assessing Their Next Steps
- Aaron David Miller, David Petraeus, Karim Sadjadpour

Political Reform Foreign Policy Middle East Iran

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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