The Rouhani moment

There’s an old story about a religious man stuck in a flood.

He prays and prays for salvation. A boat comes by and offers the religious man a ride to safety.

“No,” says the man. “God will save me.”

Eventually the man drowns.

He arrives at Heaven angry, and presumably soaking wet, and demands an audience with God to ask why he wasn’t saved.

God’s confused.

“I sent a boat!” he says.

The election of Hassan Rouhani to the presidency of Iran offers an opportunity for a truly historic reset in the Persian Gulf.

It’s fundamentally pivotal that we take advantage of this situation.
Rouhani was elected June 15, replacing the volatile Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President of Iran.

Rouhani has been described by friend and foe alike as a moderate, and he campaigned on a pledge of civil reform and improving relations with the West.

Rouhani is a boat for us in the Persian Gulf. We have to climb aboard.

There has been some debate — especially in the right-wing American and Israeli circles — about both Rouhani’s bona fides as a moderate and about whether his moderation is truly important for Iranian policy because the Iranian president is subordinate to the Ayatollah, Iran’s chief cleric.

However, Rouhani is the real deal, and he has the support of the Ayatollah.

One Iranian interviewed by the Huffington Post noted that many political prisoners have already been freed.

Another, a Tehran University professor, said his country has significantly “evolved” since Ahmadinejad left office.

Rouhani — while remaining officially opposed to the existence of Israel — spread a message of peace toward “all Jews,” wishing them a happy Rosh
Hashanah.  

Additionally, Rouhani, in an exchange with Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, recently pledged to open up social media to all Iranians, lifting the current ban.  

The best part is that Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian Parliament are supporting Rouhani.

While the politically popular Revolutionary Guard are sticking to their hardline approach, 230 of 290 Iranian parliamentarians signed a letter supporting Rouhani’s overtures.

Rouhani’s overtures culminated in a fifteen minute phone call with President Barack Obama, the first phone call between American and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Iranian revolution, which is especially notable because it lasted longer than 80 percent of my phone calls with my mom.

Unfortunately, there is significant American and Israeli opposition to any thawing of relations.

The Wall Street Journal, unsurprisingly, accused Obama of being a prop in Rouhani’s PR campaign. 

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Rouhani to be a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” at the United Nations.

There’s nothing wrong with healthy skepticism of any sudden changes in Iranian politics.

There’s significant inertia in the system rewarding hardliners and opposing moderation.

Change is difficult to achieve and harder to sustain.

But when we get sent a boat, we need to climb aboard.

­— shlumorg@indiana.edu
Follow columnist
Luke Morgan on Twitter @flukemorgan.