PRESIDENT OBAMA: This is not just good policy; it also happens to be good politics, because the truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of Americans think that raising the minimum wage is a good idea. That is true for independents; that is true for Democrats; and it’s true for Republicans.
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The ObamaCare sideshows designed to scare and detract people from what is really working may have finally hit a wall. People are just too interested and responsible to let affordable health care pass them by.
The White House’s biggest frustration right now is that Obamacare’s technical failures are obscuring its great success: Premiums are much lower than the Congressional Budget Office estimated when the law first passed. In a new report for the liberal Center for American Progress, Topher Spiro and Jonathan Gruber quantify exactly how much lower.
The Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces was projected to be $ 4,700 in 2014. In fact, it’s more like $ 3,936 — $ 764, or 16 percent, lower than expected … the Affordable Care Act will cost $ 190 billion less than the CBO estimated over the next decade.
That savings will make up for the lost Medicaid expansion savings the CBO assumed would happen in the original law that included every state.
Individual Market: It can’t be stressed enough about what ObamaCare is really dealing with here; 10 percent of the country. That’s not a lot of people, but it is the most costly area of the health care market.
“Individual market,” … So we’re talking about insurance premiums for a small minority of the population. But it’s still millions of people.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance in the individual market kept costs down by turning the away the sick, raising prices on the likely-to-get-sick, and offering, in many cases, pretty stingy benefits. The Affordable Care Act makes individual market insurance both more accessible and more comprehensive.
Get a load of this perfect example of one opponent of ObamaCare who just doesn’t get it.
A good example of the tradeoffs is the case of Dianne Barrette, a 56-year-old Florida woman who’s been featured in the media because her current plan will cost 10 times more under Obamacare. As Erik Wemple discovered, her old plan was health insurance in name only. It didn’t cover inpatient hospital care, it didn’t cover ambulance services, and so forth. Under Obamacare, all plans have to cover those benefits. So Barrette’s old plan was extremely affordable — $ 56 a month — because it covered basically nothing. Her new plan is much more expensive but also much more generous.
So the bottom line is that Obamacare makes insurance more accessible and more comprehensive, which raises average premiums, but it adds subsidies and competitive markets, which lower premiums.
I thought this important note from Klein bares repeating:
One thing to note about the media coverage around this is that some of the old plans in the individual market are being canceled or moved onto the exchanges at a time when the exchanges aren’t really working. So we’re hearing from people losing something but we’re not hearing much yet from the people who’re gaining insurance, or lower-priced insurance, through the law. That’s another consequence of the web site’s failures, but it’s a temporary one. There will be some losers under Obamacare, but because of the subsidies, many more winners.
Also at Wonkblog was this reason for inurers dropping their old policies:
From an insurance company’s vantage point, grandfathered plans are a bit of a dead end: They can’t enroll new subscribers and are really constrained in their ability to tweak the benefit package or cost-sharing structure. The whole idea of the insurance expansion isn’t to get Americans to purchase anything called “insurance.” It’s to get them to purchase a specific kind of insurance, a plan that is relatively comprehensive and helps protect against financial ruin. Of course, not everyone agrees with this; some contend that shoppers should be able to continue buying less robust insurance policies and have the option of taking on more financial risk.
Nokia began as a paper company. It was 1865, and the mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a wood pulp mill next to the Tammerkoski Rapids in the southwest of Finland. A few years later, he opened a second mill, this one located on the banks of the Nokianvirta River — a river, apparently, named for an animal: a small mammal related to the weasel and the wolverine.
But the company named for a weasel-y creature wouldn’t be a one-product company for long. It would soon acquire a rubber factory, and a telephone-and-telegraph-cable manufacturer. It would dabble in electronics and clothing and forestry and robotics.
Today, with the news that Nokia will sell its handset business — and its patents along with it — to Microsoft, it’s worth remembering the many, many other times that Nokia has shifted course during its 150-year history. Nokia has been pivoting since before pivoting was a thing. Like Toyota, like Honda, like Apple, it has adjusted to the times. It may have adjusted more slowly than it should have when it came to the smartphone revolution, but today’s announcement marks yet another big shift for a company that, for most of its history, has embraced shifting as a way of life. “Changing with the times, disrupting the status quo – it’s what we’ve always done,” the company’s history declares. And while it’s questionable, here, the line been disrupting and being disrupted, it’s clear that “changing with the times” is indeed part of the company’s DNA.
With that in mind, below is a brief history of Nokia as seen through its varied products.
• Paper
• Rubber
• Telephone cables
• Telegraph cables
• Electrical cables
• Car tires
• Bicycle tires
• Footwear (including galoshes)
• Forestry tools
• Electricity generation machinery
• Military communications equipment (such as the SANLA M/90 device)
• Gas masks (such as the M61 gas mask for the Finnish Army)
• Televisions
• Consumer electronics in general
• Personal computers
• Capacitors
• Plastics
• Aluminum
• Chemicals
• Robotics
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There’s been a lot of contradictory commentary on Miley Cyrus’s VMAs performance, but everybody seems to be more or less agreed on one thing: It wasn’t very good. Cyrus’s choreography alternated between “wander helplessly,” “thrash awkwardly,” and “thrust desperately,” while her thin, whiny singing seemed to be designed to boost Britney Spears’s ego, if she happened to be watching. Robin Thicke has come in for less sneering, but was actually, almost impossibly, worse. Cyrus was trying to shock somebody (anybody) with the nude bikini and the finger, and at least she did that. Thicke, I presume, was attempting to be sexy, and instead managed all the subtle vocal charisma of a constipated water buffalo. His phrasing was so wooden it sounded like he was reading the lyrics off a cue card, or maybe off the inside of his stupid sunglasses
The awfulness of the performance is clarifying in some ways. Miley’s artless twerking, to say nothing of her artless groping of her dancer, makes it unusually obvious that what is at stake here is not art, but the exploitation of racial signifiers for fun, controversy, and profit. As Hadley Freeman noted at The Guardian:
On stage as well as in her video she used the tedious trope of having black women as her backing singers, there only to be fondled by her and to admire her wiggling derriere. Cyrus is explicitly imitating crunk music videos and the sort of hip-hop she finds so edgy – she has said, bless her, that she feels she is Lil’ Kim inside and she loves “hood music” – and the effect was not of a homage but of a minstrel show, with a young wealthy woman from the south doing a garish imitation of black music and reducing black dancers to background fodder and black women to exaggerated sex objects.
Because of racist stereotypes, black women are seen as embodying sex. Cyrus wants to revamp her image so she appears more sexy and knowledgeable; therefore she has black female dancers on stage and indifferently imitates a style associated with black performers. There’s barely even a pretense that Cyrus appreciates the music or likes the dance or what have you. The racial motivation, and indeed the racism, is unsullied by talent, genius, or even interest.
But the Cyrus/Thicke rolling aesthetic disaster can also obscure some things. Specifically, the performance is so dreadful that hating it becomes almost too easy. All you have to do to hate the racism is hate the performance — and how could you not hate the performance? Aesthetics and virtue are perfectly aligned. You don’t want to watch bad pop music performed badly by hacks? Hey, you’re on the side of the angels.
The problem is that Cyrus isn’t racist because she’s awful — or at least, her racism can’t be reduced to her awfulness. Because there are performers who are not awful who have used race much as she does. Performers like Madonna, who bell hooks famously called out for her appropriation of black styles and of black bodies as props. And, also I’d argue, performers like Janis Joplin.
Joplin didn’t use black dancers that I’m aware of, and she didn’t use black woman, or black women’s bodies, as a code for sex, as Cyrus does. But there are still uncomfortable parallels. Joplin, like Cyrus, deliberately referenced and used a style associated with black women — not twerking, for Joplin, but the female blues singing tradition associated with Bessie Smith. And Joplin, like Cyrus, used that association, and the stereotypes linked to it, to shape her own image against a traditional white femininity. Cyrus uses blackness to be sexual; Joplin used blackness to show she was earthy and real. Her strained version of “Summertime” evinces an almost Cyrus-like desperation, blasting through the songs’ subtle longing, fear, and hope, as if she can become one with the black narrator through sheer glottal power.
“Ball and Chain” is a much better effort. But it’s still a song emphatically, and even ostentatiously, associated with a black woman, in this case Big Mama Thornton. The metaphor of manacles makes unusually explicit the thematic undercurrent of a lot of blues; the parallel between personal pain and social injustice, and the necessity of endurance in the face of both. In making the song one of her signatures, Joplin picks up on those layers of meaning while erasing their context. Black women’s experiences become white women’s experiences, and in the process the specificity is lost. The black woman for Joplin becomes not a black woman, but the signifier “pain”, as for Cyrus she’s the signifier “sex.” And in both cases the white woman turns the black woman into one, single thing, in order to sell that thing at a higher price, and to a bigger audience, than the black woman herself ever could.
Of course, Joplin isn’t Cyrus. She spoke often about her love for Thornton and Bessie Smith and other performers, and listening to her it’s obvious she has an affinity for their music. As a result, her use of the blues tradition of pain and sorrow seems less like simple appropriation, and more like sharing or sisterhood— an effort to connect the troubles and the pain that both black women and white women have in common.
Joplin’s talent, then, is a bridge over, or at least a detour around, the impasse of race. Traditions belong not to black people or white people, but to whoever can grab hold of them convincingly. Ray Charles can be a country artist because he says he is; Joplin can sing the blues because she can sing the blues; Miley Cyrus can’t twerk because…well, you saw the video.
But like other talented white artists, from Elvis to the Beastie Boys to Eminem, you sometimes wonder if Joplin’s talent isn’t a bridge so much as it is a distraction. That Cheap Thrills album cover has a blackface caricature or two on it, after all, and it’s not exactly clear what good sisterly solidarity is if it doesn’t even inspire you to keep ugly racist cartoons off the authentic product you’re selling. For that matter it’s Cyrus, not Joplin, who performed in an integrated context, which means it was Cyrus, not Joplin who was at least willing to pay some actual black women directly in return for stepping on them.
Not that I want to stick up for Cyrus or anything, anymore than I want to stick up for Robin Thicke. Bad art is easy to condemn. It’s a lot less easy to talk about the unpleasant racial implications of Joplin’s work. I know I don’t enjoy the racism in Cyrus’s performance, because I don’t enjoy her performance. But with Joplin? What am I responding to? I’d like to say I’m responding to the passion, or the technique, or the emotion, but all of those are so embedded in the drama of racial appropriation that I don’t know how you separate them out. Unless you do what Cyrus does, and, with a clumsiness approaching inspiration, jettison the passion, the technique, and the emotion altogether, until the audience is left gazing at the racism that in other contexts, with just a sugar-coating of competence, they’ve managed to love.
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(CNN) — Iran, South Korea and Australia all booked a place in next year’s FIFA World Cup following a dramatic final round of matches in the Asian qualifying competition.
A second-half goal from Reza Ghoochannejhad was enough for Iran to beat South Korea 1-0 in Ulsan, meaning Carlos Queiroz’s team finished top of Group A.
Victory saw Iran reach football’s premier competition for the fourth time in its history, having previously played in the first round of the 1978, 1998 and 2006 tournaments.
Read: Tahiti’s historic defeat to Nigeria
CNN correspondent Shirzad Bozorgmehr said Iranians took to the streets across their country to celebrate.
He said that cars in the capital Tehran were draped in the Iranian flag and blowing their horns as their passengers shouted “Iran, Iran.”
“This is the second national celebration in Iran in the last five days,” said Bozorgmehr.
“Following the landslide victory of Dr. Hassan Rohani last Friday in the presidential elections, huge crowds poured into the streets of Tehran and other cities to publicly celebrate Dr Rohani’s election victory.”
In his first press conference on Monday, Rohani told reporters he planned to overhaul sports in a country where soccer is the most popular game.
Despite defeat, South Korea still clinched the second automatic qualification spot as Uzbekistan fell agonizingly short against Qatar, winning 5-1 but finishing third in Group A on goal difference alone.
After the match, South Korea coach Choi Kang-Hee revealed that he would be stepping down from his post – a surprise move at first glance, although Choi did say he would only take charge for the qualifiers when appointed in December 2011.
Choi had been involved in an acrimonious war of words with Iran coach Carlos Quieroz ahead of the game and home fans hurled plastic water bottles and other items onto the pitch after taking offense at a gesture directed towards Choi by the Portuguese after the match.
South Korea’s loss meant Uzbekistan would qualify for the finals for the first time if it beat Qatar by six goals.
But Uzbekistan fell behind in Tashkent when Abdulqadir Ilyas gave the 2022 World Cup hosts a shock first-half lead.
World Sport Presents: Racism in Football
The home side bounced back in the second half, firing in five goals without reply, but the 5-1 final score was not enough to see Uzbekistan leapfrog South Korea.
Uzbekistan will now play the third-place team in Group B – Jordan – over two legs.
In Wednesday’s final Asian qualifier, Jordan took the third place in Group B when beating Oman 1-0 in Amman – with Ahmad Ibrahim scoring a vital goal just before the hour.
The result enabled the hosts to leapfrog their opponents in the group, with Jordan – seeking a maiden World Cup qualification – having trailed the Omanis by two points ahead of kickoff.
The winner of the Uzbekistan-Jordan playoff will advance to a tie with the fifth-place team from the South American competition, with the winner qualifying for next year’s finals in Brazil.
A late header from substitute Joshua Kennedy gave Australia a 1-0 win over Iraq and sent the Socceroos to Brazil.
Australia knew a win would be enough to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup, but anything less than three points would give Oman the chance to clinch an automatic qualification spot.
With the score 0-0 at a rain-soaked ANZ Stadium, coach Holger Osiek drew the ire of the crowd by replacing star player Tim Cahill with Kennedy after 78 minutes.
But Kennedy justified Osiek’s bold decision by rising to meet Marc Bresciano’s right-wing cross, beating Iraq goalkeeper Noor Sabri with a well-placed finish.
Australia finished the Asian qualifying campaign second in Group B behind Japan.
CNN.com Recently Published/Updated
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also made clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, places his hand on his heart as a sign of respect, after speaking at a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 16, 2013, and released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader’s office, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, speaks during his meeting with President-elect Hasan Rowhani in Tehran, Iran. On Sunday, Rowhani had his first meeting as president-elect with Khamenei, who offered “necessary guidelines” to him, state TV said, without elaborating. (AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader)
Iranian President elect Hasan Rowhani, center, is accompanied by Hasan Khomeini, grandson of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, right, and Ayatollah Mousavi Bojnourdi, during visit of Ayatollah Khomeini’s shrine, just outside Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 16, 2013. Iran’s newly elected reformist-backed president Hasan Rowhani said Sunday that the country’s dire economic problems cannot be solved “overnight,” as he took his first steps in consulting with members of the clerically dominated establishment on his new policies.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s newly elected president showcased his reform-leaning image Monday by promising a “path of moderation” that includes greater openness on Tehran’s nuclear program and overtures to Washington. He also made clear where he draws the line: No halt to uranium enrichment and no direct U.S. dialogue without a pledge to stay out of Iranian affairs.
Hasan Rowhani’s first post-victory news conference was a study in what may make his presidency tick.
Rowhani may be hailed as a force for change, but he also appears to carry a deep and self-protective streak of pragmatism. He knows he can only push his views on outreach and detente as far as allowed by the country’s real powers, the ruling clerics and their military protectors, the Revolutionary Guard.
Many of Rowhani’s statements reflected these boundaries, which could later expand or contract depending on how much the theocracy wants to endorse his agenda.
When he appealed to treat “old wounds” with the U.S., he also echoed the ruling clerics’ position that no breakthroughs can occur as long as Washington is seen as trying to undermine their hold on power. Rowhani’s urging for greater “nuclear transparency” as a path to roll back sanctions was also punctuated by a hard-liner stance: No chance to stop the uranium enrichment labs at the heart of the stalemate with the West and its allies.
Rowhani spoke eloquently about a “new era” on the international stage but avoided direct mention of the sweeping crackdowns at home since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
At the end of the news conference, a spectator — whose identity was not immediately known — yelled out for the release of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest for more than two years. Rowhani smiled but made no comment.
“You can make any kind of promises you want,” said Merhzad Boroujerdi, director of the Middle East Studies program at Syracuse University. “At the end of the day, it’s the ruling clerics that decide whether they go anywhere.”
There is no doubt, however, that the overall tone of Rowhani’s remarks resonates well in the West. The White House and others have already signaled cautious hope that Rowhani’s presence could open new possibilities on diplomacy and efforts to break the impasse over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program after four failed negotiating rounds since last year.
If nothing else, the contrast was vivid with Ahmadinejad and his hectoring style.
“We are on a path of moderation. … We have to enhance mutual trust between Iran and other countries,” Rowhani told journalists. “We have to build trust.”
Rowhani appeared to borrow phrases from another cleric-president, reformist Mohammad Khatami, who preceded Ahmadinejad and opened a range of social and political freedoms that have been largely swept aside in the lockdown atmosphere of recent years.
“The basis of politics is constructive interaction with the world,” said Rowhani, wearing a white turban and surrounded by violet flowers — the signature color of his campaign. “Circumstances have changed in the world by this election. … The new atmosphere will definitely be turned into a new opportunity.”
Many questions remain, though. Rowhani sidestepped the issue of Iran’s close alliance with Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying only that the efforts to end the civil war and restore stability rest with the “Syrian people.”
In Paris, Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, underscored worries among some Israeli officials that their Western allies could hope for Rowhani-inspired breakthroughs while Iran continues “to make progress in their military nuclear project.”
Although the 64-year-old Rowhani cannot directly set key policies, he might be able to use the strength of his landslide victory and his influential connections, including with former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to shape opinions. Rowhani served as Iran’s first nuclear envoy from 2003-2005 during a period of intense deal-making with Europeans.
Rowhani’s aides have said he proposed an accord in 2005 with then-French President Jacques Chirac to allow uranium enrichment in exchange for the highest level of monitoring by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency. The deal did not gain support from other countries such as Britain and the U.S.
In an interview last year with the Iranian magazine Mehr Nameh, Rowhani said he also received a U.S. proposal in 2004, carried by the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency at the time, Mohamed ElBaradei, for direct dialogue on nuclear and other issues. Rowhani said he passed along the offer to the ruling clerics and “the decision was that we should not negotiate with the U.S.”
Rowhani has not given any clear details on his advice for the current talks, which face pressure from factions in the Israel and the U.S. urging greater consideration of military options.
But Rowhani appears to favor the general contours of the reported French-backed deal for greater openness as the way to ease Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear efforts. The sanctions have slashed oil revenue and contributed to a spike in inflation. “If sanctions have any benefits, they will only benefit Israel,” he said at the news conference.
He outlined “step by step” measures to reassure the West about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The West suspects that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon. Iranian leaders, including Rowhani, insist Iran seeks reactors only for energy and medical applications.
Enriched uranium is used as fuel for energy and research reactors but it can be further boosted to make a nuclear warhead.
“The first step will be showing greater transparency. We are ready to show greater transparency and make clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions are totally within international frameworks,” he said. “The second step is promoting mutual confidence. We’ll take measures in both fields. The first goal is that no new sanctions are imposed. Then, that the (existing) sanctions are reduced.”
Rowhani, though, reaffirmed the positions that have contributed to the logjam in talks so far: Iran’s insistence that Washington “should recognize all of Iran’s rights, including the nuclear rights.”
He further added that any hope for one-on-one dialogue with the U.S. depends on the improbable starting point already set out by the ruling clerics. “The Americans need to specify that they will never intervene in Iran’s internal affairs,” Rowhani said.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “There is an old wound. This wound could be treated through prudence. We will not seek increasing tensions. Wisdom requires that the two nations and the two governments look to the future.”
On Syria, he said the ultimate responsibility to resolve the more than two-year-old civil war should be in the hands of the “Syrian people.”
“We are opposed to foreign intervention,” he said. “We hope peace and tranquility will return to Syria through cooperation with countries of the region and world.”
Rowhani formally takes office in August. In the meantime, it appears Ahmadinejad’s political foes could be plotting a payback, underscoring the often cutthroat nature of internal Iranian affairs.
Iran’s official news agency said a criminal court summoned Ahmadinejad over a lawsuit filed by the country’s parliament speaker and others.
The report gave no further details, but Ahmadinejad and the speaker, Ali Larijani, have waged political feuds for years. The court has set a November date for Ahmadinejad’s appearance, it said.
___
Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, listens during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also made clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iranian newly elected President Hasan Rowhani, places his hand on his heart as a sign of respect, after speaking at a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 17, 2013. Rowhani showcases his reformist image by promising a “path of moderation,” the easing of nuclear tensions and steps to narrow the huge divide with the United States. He also make clear where he won’t go, saying he opposes any halt to uranium enrichment, at the heart of the nuclear standoff. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 16, 2013, and released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader’s office, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, speaks during his meeting with President-elect Hasan Rowhani in Tehran, Iran. On Sunday, Rowhani had his first meeting as president-elect with Khamenei, who offered “necessary guidelines” to him, state TV said, without elaborating. (AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader)
Iranian President elect Hasan Rowhani, center, is accompanied by Hasan Khomeini, grandson of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, right, and Ayatollah Mousavi Bojnourdi, during visit of Ayatollah Khomeini’s shrine, just outside Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 16, 2013. Iran’s newly elected reformist-backed president Hasan Rowhani said Sunday that the country’s dire economic problems cannot be solved “overnight,” as he took his first steps in consulting with members of the clerically dominated establishment on his new policies.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s newly elected president showcased his reform-leaning image Monday by promising a “path of moderation” that includes greater openness on Tehran’s nuclear program and overtures to Washington. He also made clear where he draws the line: No halt to uranium enrichment and no direct U.S. dialogue without a pledge to stay out of Iranian affairs.
Hasan Rowhani’s first post-victory news conference was a study in what may make his presidency tick.
Rowhani may be hailed as a force for change, but he also appears to carry a deep and self-protective streak of pragmatism. He knows he can only push his views on outreach and detente as far as allowed by the country’s real powers, the ruling clerics and their military protectors, the Revolutionary Guard.
Many of Rowhani’s statements reflected these boundaries, which could later expand or contract depending on how much the theocracy wants to endorse his agenda.
When he appealed to treat “old wounds” with the U.S., he also echoed the ruling clerics’ position that no breakthroughs can occur as long as Washington is seen as trying to undermine their hold on power. Rowhani’s urging for greater “nuclear transparency” as a path to roll back sanctions was also punctuated by a hard-liner stance: No chance to stop the uranium enrichment labs at the heart of the stalemate with the West and its allies.
Rowhani spoke eloquently about a “new era” on the international stage but avoided direct mention of the sweeping crackdowns at home since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
At the end of the news conference, a spectator — whose identity was not immediately known — yelled out for the release of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest for more than two years. Rowhani smiled but made no comment.
“You can make any kind of promises you want,” said Merhzad Boroujerdi, director of the Middle East Studies program at Syracuse University. “At the end of the day, it’s the ruling clerics that decide whether they go anywhere.”
There is no doubt, however, that the overall tone of Rowhani’s remarks resonates well in the West. The White House and others have already signaled cautious hope that Rowhani’s presence could open new possibilities on diplomacy and efforts to break the impasse over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program after four failed negotiating rounds since last year.
If nothing else, the contrast was vivid with Ahmadinejad and his hectoring style.
“We are on a path of moderation. … We have to enhance mutual trust between Iran and other countries,” Rowhani told journalists. “We have to build trust.”
Rowhani appeared to borrow phrases from another cleric-president, reformist Mohammad Khatami, who preceded Ahmadinejad and opened a range of social and political freedoms that have been largely swept aside in the lockdown atmosphere of recent years.
“The basis of politics is constructive interaction with the world,” said Rowhani, wearing a white turban and surrounded by violet flowers — the signature color of his campaign. “Circumstances have changed in the world by this election. … The new atmosphere will definitely be turned into a new opportunity.”
Many questions remain, though. Rowhani sidestepped the issue of Iran’s close alliance with Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying only that the efforts to end the civil war and restore stability rest with the “Syrian people.”
In Paris, Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, underscored worries among some Israeli officials that their Western allies could hope for Rowhani-inspired breakthroughs while Iran continues “to make progress in their military nuclear project.”
Although the 64-year-old Rowhani cannot directly set key policies, he might be able to use the strength of his landslide victory and his influential connections, including with former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to shape opinions. Rowhani served as Iran’s first nuclear envoy from 2003-2005 during a period of intense deal-making with Europeans.
Rowhani’s aides have said he proposed an accord in 2005 with then-French President Jacques Chirac to allow uranium enrichment in exchange for the highest level of monitoring by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency. The deal did not gain support from other countries such as Britain and the U.S.
In an interview last year with the Iranian magazine Mehr Nameh, Rowhani said he also received a U.S. proposal in 2004, carried by the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency at the time, Mohamed ElBaradei, for direct dialogue on nuclear and other issues. Rowhani said he passed along the offer to the ruling clerics and “the decision was that we should not negotiate with the U.S.”
Rowhani has not given any clear details on his advice for the current talks, which face pressure from factions in the Israel and the U.S. urging greater consideration of military options.
But Rowhani appears to favor the general contours of the reported French-backed deal for greater openness as the way to ease Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear efforts. The sanctions have slashed oil revenue and contributed to a spike in inflation. “If sanctions have any benefits, they will only benefit Israel,” he said at the news conference.
He outlined “step by step” measures to reassure the West about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The West suspects that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon. Iranian leaders, including Rowhani, insist Iran seeks reactors only for energy and medical applications.
Enriched uranium is used as fuel for energy and research reactors but it can be further boosted to make a nuclear warhead.
“The first step will be showing greater transparency. We are ready to show greater transparency and make clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions are totally within international frameworks,” he said. “The second step is promoting mutual confidence. We’ll take measures in both fields. The first goal is that no new sanctions are imposed. Then, that the (existing) sanctions are reduced.”
Rowhani, though, reaffirmed the positions that have contributed to the logjam in talks so far: Iran’s insistence that Washington “should recognize all of Iran’s rights, including the nuclear rights.”
He further added that any hope for one-on-one dialogue with the U.S. depends on the improbable starting point already set out by the ruling clerics. “The Americans need to specify that they will never intervene in Iran’s internal affairs,” Rowhani said.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “There is an old wound. This wound could be treated through prudence. We will not seek increasing tensions. Wisdom requires that the two nations and the two governments look to the future.”
On Syria, he said the ultimate responsibility to resolve the more than two-year-old civil war should be in the hands of the “Syrian people.”
“We are opposed to foreign intervention,” he said. “We hope peace and tranquility will return to Syria through cooperation with countries of the region and world.”
Rowhani formally takes office in August. In the meantime, it appears Ahmadinejad’s political foes could be plotting a payback, underscoring the often cutthroat nature of internal Iranian affairs.
Iran’s official news agency said a criminal court summoned Ahmadinejad over a lawsuit filed by the country’s parliament speaker and others.
The report gave no further details, but Ahmadinejad and the speaker, Ali Larijani, have waged political feuds for years. The court has set a November date for Ahmadinejad’s appearance, it said.
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Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
