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Economic improvement is biggest challenge for Rouhani's second presidency

By REUTERS

AUGUST 5, 2017 03:31

As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was officially sworn in for a second term, some analysts indicate that the biggest challenge for the leader is to help the country get rid of its current economic predicament.

Hossein Kanani Moghadam, an Iranian political commentator believes that while Rouhani did solve some of the economic problems, there is still much to be done.

"Rouhani's second presidency will be a tough period. First, though his last administration has solved some economic problems and lowered the inflation rate, the country remains far from prosperous. There are still many problems in economy, especially the financial sanctions on the country that haven't been eliminated. However, the Iranian people hold great anticipation regarding the economic improvement which was mentioned by Rouhani during his presidential election," he said.

Since Rouhani came into power in 2013, he has been constantly making efforts to change Iran’s economic situation. Though some economic indexes have showed improvement, the country still keeps a high unemployment rate.

In addition to economic issues, Rouhani will have to face diplomatic challenges from the U.S. as well as some Arabic countries.

"Because in foreign policy issues, there are other challenges. I mean, the relationship between Iran and the Arab world - Iran-Saudi Relations is one of them. How to go on with the Syrian crisis, how to resolve, finally the Syrian crisis will be another challenge for Iranian foreign policy. Terrorism and area extremism, these are real challenges for all the countries in the region and also including Iran," said Mohammad Hassan Khani, professor of international relations at Imam Sadeq University.

Since Donald Trump started his presidency in January, he has put pressure on Iran by alleging a denunciation on "Iran's support of terrorism" and calling for other Arabic countries to isolate Iran. Meanwhile, relations between Iran and countries like Saudi Arabia are also becoming troublesome.

With the growing number of opposition factions in Iran, Kahni pointed out that Rouhani will have to balance the power of different parties, which has even become a key to a successful presidency for the president.

"Something that I call it, how to deal with the growing opposition voices against Rouhani. There are different factions, those who lost the election against Rouhani. So, they are not going to be silent; they are going to be active and some will challenge him on cultural issues, social issues, social problems, and also economic and foreign policy issues. So, the third challenge is how to manage these opposition voices and how to deal with them, because he cannot simply ignore them. They are capable of building up the pressure over the administration, which would make the working and the maneuverability of the new administration very difficult," added Khani.

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