On the result of the 2013 Iranian presidential election

A few hours ago, Iranian cleric and diplomat Hassan Rouhani was declared the winner of Iran's presidential election; he achieved over 50% of the vote against six other candidates and avoided a run-off.

I'm not an expert on Iranian politics; in fact, I had not even heard of Rouhani until a few days ago. For the most part, I had paid little attention to the Iranian election because I had read that all the candidates were conservatives, with the only anticipated change at the presidential level being the person rather than the policies, however, from what I've read recently, Rouhani was labelled as a moderate and was endorsed by the reformists/Greens and former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami (both of whom I have heard about); he was also the head of Iran's nuclear negotiating team but resigned in 2005 after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I hope that Rouhani will be a major improvement over outgoing president Ahmadinejad. For the past eight years under Ahmadinejad's administration, Iran has seen reversals in policies implemented by reformist presidents, a tarnished national image from Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, worsened relations with other countries and its economy has been devastated by international sanctions over the nuclear programme, with millions of ordinary Iranians suffering as a result. Two of Rouhani's promises include improving relations with the West rather than continuing a confrontational approach, and working to have the sanctions repealed.

I congratulate the Iranian people for electing a moderate president. Again, my knowledge of Rouhani is limited, but even if he is only half of what the media is describing him as then he'll make a better president than his immediate predecessor; however, Iranians chose a moderate over the conservatives and hardliners, and I doubt they would tolerate Rouhani changing his positions once he is inaugurated. Iran needs a calmer head of government and I'm sure that the world is relieved that another Ahmadinejad has not been elected.