Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 5
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
President Hassan Rouhani is apparently seeking to ease tensions with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in order to pave the way for expanding country’s international ties, a UK-based Iranian military expert told Trend.
“We always are prepared to defend our nation…we support our armed forces but the most important weapon of us is the vote of the nation,” President Rouhani said during his inaugural ceremony on Saturday.
“It appears that Hassan Rouhani who had earlier sharply criticized the IRGC’s role in the country’s economy has arrived at the conclusion that he needs to defuse political tensions with the elite force in order to fulfill the campaign promises of fixing economy through broadening cooperation with the world and luring foreign investment,” Hossein Aryan, a UK-based Iranian military expert and a former officer of Iranian Navy said.
“Due to IRGC’s profoundinfluence over affairs of state, Rouhani in the lack of support from the guards seems incapable of delivering on his campaign promises of improving the economic situation in the country,” Aryan added.
The expert further touched upon the guard’s role in the country’s economy saying that the elite force is involved in a number of large development and economic projects which would pose grave risks to Rouhani’s plans to fix economy concerning the US sanctions.
“The US sanctions directly target individuals and entities linked to the IRGC and this means that a large area of the economy would suffer from the US sanctions,” he stated.
Hassan Rouhani has been sworn in for a second term after a landslide victory over his conservative opponent in the country’s May election.
The Iranian president has accused the US of undermining the country’s landmark nuclear deal with the world powers which was reached in 2015.