Whether the Iranian people can trust its new president Hassan Rouhani is still not clear. Whether his apparent rather diplomatic style of foreign politics will be followed by domestic reforms neither is. There may already be notable signs, however, that the expected end of 35 years of cold war with the west may soon result in a surge of lower-scale freedom in the Islamic Republic. The above music video by Hossein Mebashi which uses Hassan Rouhani’s words when he addressed his Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at his inauguration in August (allegedly by permission) shows beautiful young Iranians apparently holding him accountable for the promised, well, Obamaesque “change”, “hope”, “Yes we can”.

Obama’s promises have proved to be false in the meantime.

The Iranian civilization is much older than that of the United States. The Iranian people have endured cruel rulers in their long history and numerous conquests starting with Alexander of Macedon, the Arabs, the Ghaznavids, the Seljuqs, the Mongols, and the Timurids. In the end, they have been able time and again to “Persianize” whoever conquered them. It is not really expected that that will be successful with the U.S. and the west. Becoming the desired and tolerated, by the U.S., hegemony in the region is not too bad a perspective.

29 November 2013 @ 8:33 am.

Last modified November 29, 2013.