PPP  focus, 5, 5, 2017–  A hard-line candidate has challenged Iranian President Hassan Rouhani over the nuclear deal with world powers during a televised debate, while the incumbent accused hard-liners of attempting to derail the accord.

Split evenly between three conservatives and three moderate-reformists, the debates have the flavour of a team event.

But Rouhani defended his record, and accused his domestic opponents of rooting for Donald Trump.
Rouhani said his conservative opponents in the election were linked to those trying to scupper the deal and broader outreach to the West. “They wrote messages on the missiles so that we won’t be able to reap its benefits”, he said, mentioning the elite force’s testing of two ballistic missiles in March 2016, just two months after sanctions were lifted.

It was a rare criticism of the guards’ conduct in public, which underscored the president’s frustration about Iran’s parallel, unelected bodies that act independently of his government.

On Tuesday, the House of Lords International Relations Committee in London issued a report saying the United Kingdom can no longer rely on USA leadership on Middle East policy and must work more closely with Europe to ensure the Iran nuclear deal stays in place. “Mr Rouhani promised that after the signing of the deal all the sanctions would be lifted and people’s lives would improve, but they have not”, he said.

“The Obama administration avoided any serious action for years, and so Iran kept growing its arsenal and using it against our allies, against Syrian civilians, and increasingly against our military”, said the source.

One of his main challengers, hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, said he would not tear up the nuclear accord but slammed what he called the government’s weak stance and empty promises.

Amir Basiri writes in “Washington Examiner” on 2 May 2017, “While Iran does pose a major military threat, through supporting what has been described by Trump as “radical Islamist terrorism”, Tehran’s ongoing human rights abuses should finally receive the long overdue attention they deserve”.

“What were you doing behind the scenes [as we were negotiating]”, Rouhani asked Raisi.
“Parallel to such policy overhauls, the US should stand alongside the Iranian people and their organized resistance, represented for decades by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the umbrella group of different organizations and individuals led by Maryam Rajavi, advocating regime change and peaceful transition to democracy”, Basiri praises the Iranian Resistance.