Hassan Rouhani (12 November 1948-), born Hassan Fereydoun, was President of Iran from 3 August 2013 to 3 August 2021, succeeding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and preceding Ebrahim Raisi. Rouhani was a centrist and reformist who supported the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, and he made it his goal to prepare a civil rights charter and to repair relations with the West. However, relations with the United States deteriotated during Donald Trump's presidency, and tensions escalated during the Persian Gulf crisis, which began in 2019.
Biography[]
Rouhani as a young MP
Hassan Fereydoun was born in Sorkheh, Semnan, Iran on 12 November 1948 to a religious Shia Muslim family, the son of a spice merchant. He obtained a law degree from the University of Tehran in 1972, and he was arrested many times while making pro-Khomeini speeches across the country as a student activist. Rouhani was advised to leave the country due to SAVAK monitoring him, so he briefly joined Khomeini in France before returning home to take part in the Iranian Revolution against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1980, he was elected to the Majlis, serving for five four-year terms (20 years). From 1982 to 1988, he was a member of the Supreme Defense Council, and he was deputy commander of the war from 1983 to 1985; these roles would lead to him being one of the three Iranian men to meet with Robert C. McFarlane to buy weapons from the United States in the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1989, Rouhani became a member of the Supreme National Security Council, followed by an appointment to the Expediency Discernment Council in 1991 and to the Assembly of Experts in 1999. As Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, he negotiated with the West on Iran's development of nuclear energy, and he also served as an economic trade negotiator. In 2013, he ran for President of Iran as a Moderation and Development Party candidate, running on a centrist platform. He improved women's rights by appointing female foreign ministry spokespeople, exchanged conciliatory letters with foreign countries, and advocated the passage of a civil rights charter, and he succeeded in negotiating the acquisition of nuclear energy for the Iranian people. Rouhani also oversaw Iran's participation in the war on the Islamic State and its intervention in Syria on the side of the Syrian Arab Republic. Donald Trump's election as President of the United States in 2016 led to the deterioration of US-Iran relations as the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, and, in 2019, the Persian Gulf crisis broke out in a limited revival of the Tanker Wars of the 1980s. Iran and America nearly went to war over the USA's assassination of Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to both countries becoming distracted by internal issues. In June 2021, the hardliner Ebrahim Raisi was elected to succeed the term-limited Rouhani as President, and Rouhani left office in August.