A U.S. military strike against Iran would be preventative, not preemptive, and preventive wars have never been sanctioned under any international agreement.
The international community is most interested in the foreign policy implications of the Iranian election. The combination of Rowhani in Tehran and Obama at the White House looks fortunate for diplomacy and peace. The reality will clearly be more complicated.
The election of new Iranian president Hassan Rowhani is a very slight move in the right direction for Iran.
Iran's election was not a political sea-change as much as a shift in tone and optics. But such a shift may have very significant consequences.
It was surprising that Rowhani was permitted to win by an unelected conservative establishment who over the last decade have systematically purged moderates and reformists from the corridors of power using force and intimidation.
It is unlikely that Iran’s new president will transform the country’s relations with the United States.
Iran’s new president may be known as a moderate but he is still committed to the revolution and was one of the few hand picked by the supreme leader. The change he might bring is in pursuing a policy of detente instead of a hard-line ideological policy of resistance.
The outcome of the recent presidential election in Iran was unpredictable in that over the last decade in Iran, moderates and reformists had generally been purged from the corridors of power.
Hassan Rowhani’s victory in the Iranian presidential election shows a radical conservative agenda does not enjoy widespread support in Iran.
It's been obvious for a while that people in Iran want to see change, but what was quite surprising was that the ballots actually were counted and Rowhani was allowed to win.
















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