Economics
Iran’s Election Turns Back the Clock on Reconciliation With West
- Pragmatic considerations may still mean nuclear deal not dead
- Conservatives swept parliament, repudiating Rouhani’s policies
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The victory by hard-liners in Iran’s election puts parliament back in the hands of people determined to turn the clock back on reconciliation with the West. Expect a retreat from commitments to the hollowed-out nuclear deal as the Islamic Republic’s economy bleeds from President Donald Trump’s sanctions onslaught.
“The results that we’re seeing in the parliamentary elections are basically a manifestation of what’s been going on since early summer last year, when Iran started its more confrontational foreign policy approach,” said Adnan Tabatabai, Iran analyst and co-founder of the Bonn-based Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient. “It makes things much more difficult for safeguarding the nuclear agreement.”