76 Facts About Hassan Rouhani

1.

Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian Islamist politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021.

2.

Hassan Rouhani is a sharia lawyer, academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric.

3.

Hassan Rouhani has been a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts since 1999.

4.

Hassan Rouhani was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2021, and was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021.

5.

On 7 May 2013, Hassan Rouhani registered for the presidential election that was held on 14 June 2013.

6.

Hassan Rouhani said that, if elected, he would prepare a "civil rights charter", restore the economy and improve rocky relations with Western nations.

7.

Hassan Rouhani expressed official support for upholding the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.

8.

Hassan Rouhani has improved Iran's diplomatic relations with other countries through exchanging conciliatory letters.

9.

Hassan Rouhani won re-election in the 2017 election with 23,636,652 votes.

10.

Hassan Rouhani became the third Iranian President, after Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to win a presidential victory as an incumbent with an increased electoral mandate.

11.

Hassan Rouhani attended classes taught by prominent scholars of that time including Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, Morteza Haeri Yazdi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Soltani, Mohammad Fazel Lankarani, and Mohammad Shahabadi.

12.

In 1973, Hassan Rouhani entered military service in the city of Nishapur.

13.

Hassan Rouhani continued his studies at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, and graduated in 1995 with an MPhil degree in Law with his thesis entitled The Islamic legislative power with reference to the Iranian experience and a PhD degree in Constitutional Law in 1999 for a thesis titled The Flexibility of Shariah with reference to the Iranian experience.

14.

Allegations regarding Hassan Rouhani's plagiarism were first raised in 2013 when it was claimed that he had probably "lifted" sentences from a book by Afghan author Mohammad Hashim Kamali.

15.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Kalantari, a member of the Assembly of Experts, Shiraz University faculty member and one of the alleged victims, said that "major segments" of Chapter 4 of Hassan Rouhani's thesis had been translated from his book without being referenced.

16.

Hassan Rouhani married his cousin, Sahebeh Erabi, who is six years younger, when he was around 20 years old and has four children.

17.

The Guardian and the Financial Times reported that Hassan Rouhani had a fifth child, a son who has died in unknown circumstances.

18.

Hassan Rouhani's brother, Hossein Fereydoun, is a diplomat and politician, a former governor, ambassador, and former Vice Minister of Intelligence.

19.

Hassan Rouhani was Rouhani's representative to IRIB in arrangements for presidential debates.

20.

Hassan Rouhani was named as "Hassan Fereydoun Rouhani" in a list of Majlis representatives on 5 July 1981, while photos of his identification card taken around his presidential campaign in 2013 only say "Rouhani" is his last name.

21.

In November 1977, during a public ceremony held at Tehran's Ark Mosque to commemorate the death of Mostafa Khomeini, Hassan Rouhani used the title "Imam" for the Ayatollah Khomeini, the then exiled leader of the Islamist movement, for the first time.

22.

Hassan Rouhani was elected to the Majlis, the Parliament of Iran, in 1980.

23.

Hassan Rouhani was appointed as Deputy to Second-in-Command of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

24.

When Robert C McFarlane, Reagan's national security adviser, came to Tehran in May 1986, Rouhani was one of the three people who talked to McFarlane about buying weapons.

25.

Hassan Rouhani was offered and turned down the post of Minister of Intelligence of Iran in 1989.

26.

Hassan Rouhani was the first secretary of the SNSC and kept the post for 16 years from 1989 to 2005.

27.

In 1991, Hassan Rouhani was appointed to the Expediency Council and has kept that post up to the present time.

28.

Hassan Rouhani was elected as Tehran Province's representative to the Assembly's fourth term in 2006 and is still serving in that capacity.

29.

Hassan Rouhani was the head of the political and social committee of the assembly of experts, member of the presiding board, and head of Tehran office of the secretariat of the assembly.

30.

Hassan Rouhani has been running the Center for Strategic Research since 1991.

31.

Hassan Rouhani is the managing editor of three academic and research quarterlies in Persian and English, which include Rahbord, Foreign Relations, and the Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs.

32.

Hassan Rouhani was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for 16 years.

33.

Hassan Rouhani's leading role in the nuclear negotiations which brought him the nickname of "Diplomat Sheikh", first given to him by the nascent Sharq newspaper in November 2003 and was frequently repeated after that by domestic and foreign Persian-speaking media.

34.

Therefore, on the order of President Khatami with the confirmation of Ali Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani took charge of Iran's nuclear case on 6 October 2003.

35.

However, decisions made by the nuclear team under the leadership of Hassan Rouhani were criticized by certain circles in later years.

36.

Hassan Rouhani then was appointed by the Supreme Leader as his representative at the SNSC.

37.

Hassan Rouhani announced his presidential candidacy on 11 March 2013 and registered as a presidential candidate on 7 May Amid the run-up to the election, former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, together with reformists supported Rouhani on the presidential race after pro-reform candidate Mohammad Reza Aref dropped out of the presidential race after Khatami advised him to quit in favor of Rouhani.

38.

On 15 June 2013, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced the results of the election, with a total number of 36,704,156 ballots cast; Hassan Rouhani won 18,613,329 votes, while his main rival Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf secured 6,077,292 votes.

39.

Hassan Rouhani performed well with both the middle class and youth, even garnering majority support in religious cities such as Mashhad and Qom as well as small towns and villages.

40.

Religious Iranians equally celebrated Hassan Rouhani's victory, demonstrating what analysts described as a thorough rejection of the policies of the conservative factions.

41.

Hassan Rouhani saw off a strong challenge from hardline Ebrahim Raisi at the 2017 election, a fellow cleric with radically different politics, who stirred up populist concerns about the sluggish economy, lambasted Hassan Rouhani for seeking foreign investment and appealed to religious conservatives.

42.

Hassan Rouhani had gathered momentum as conservatives keen to win back control of the government coalesced behind Raisi's initially lacklustre campaign.

43.

Hassan Rouhani ultimately won the election in a landslide, providing a ringing endorsement of his efforts to re-engage with the West and offer greater freedoms.

44.

Hassan Rouhani promised greater openness and to repair the country's international standing, offering greater nuclear transparency in order to restore international trust.

45.

Hassan Rouhani was announced the winner on the day following the election.

46.

Hassan Rouhani received his presidential precept from his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 3 August 2013 and entered Sa'dabad Palace in a private ceremony.

47.

Hassan Rouhani had a ten-day mandate for introducing his cabinet members to the parliament but he did not use this.

48.

Between three reformist politicians that were likely for the vice presidency, Hassan Rouhani appointed former industries minister as vice-president.

49.

Hassan Rouhani appointed Mohammad Nahavandian as his chief of staff.

50.

The economic policy of Hassan Rouhani focuses on the long-term economic development of Iran.

51.

Hassan Rouhani believes that improving the economic conditions of the people should be accomplished by boosting the purchasing power of the people, reducing the wealth gap.

52.

Hassan Rouhani thinks that equitable distribution of national wealth and economic growth lead to all mentioned economic goals.

53.

Hassan Rouhani's plan is targeted to increase direct and indirect assistance to low-income groups.

54.

Hassan Rouhani is urgently going to regenerate the Management and Planning Organization of Iran.

55.

Hassan Rouhani believes that inflation results in damaging effects on the economy of families and hopes to deflate that in Foresight and Hope Cabinet.

56.

Hassan Rouhani appeared to pledge his support for increasing Internet access and other political and social freedoms.

57.

Hassan Rouhani's government appointed Elham Aminzadeh, Shahindokht Molaverdi and Masoumeh Ebtekar as vice presidents; as well as Marzieh Afkham, the first female spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

58.

Hassan Rouhani has promised to set up a ministry for women.

59.

Hassan Rouhani cited the increase in executions, Abdolfattah Soltani's hunger strike, and the continued house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

60.

In 2015, Hassan Rouhani appointed Marzieh Afkham and Saleh Adibi, as the first female since the 1979 and the first Sunni Kurd respectively, to hold office as ambassadors.

61.

The main task of Hassan Rouhani is only to develop dialogues between Iran and Political rivals including P5+1.

62.

In March 2015, Hassan Rouhani sent a letter to President Obama and the heads of the other five countries negotiating with Iran, explaining Iran's stance.

63.

Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone with the leaders of all the nations involved in the negotiations, except for the United States.

64.

Hassan Rouhani met with British Prime Minister David Cameron, marking the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that the leaders of Iran and the United Kingdom have met.

65.

Hassan Rouhani's visit to New York City in September 2013 was hailed as major progress in Iran's relations with the United States.

66.

Hassan Rouhani previously said that his government is ready to hold talks with the United States after thirty-two years.

67.

Hassan Rouhani denied reports that during his trip he had refused a meeting with US President Barack Obama, and felt more time was needed to coordinate such a meeting.

68.

On 27 September 2013, a day after the two countries foreign ministers met during the P5+1 and Iran talks, Hassan Rouhani had a phone call with President Obama that marked two countries' highest political exchange since 1979.

69.

However, due to this phone call Hassan Rouhani was protested by conservatives who chanted "death to America" when he returned to Tehran.

70.

In February 2019, Hassan Rouhani condemned the United States for trying to topple Iran's ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

71.

On Iran's relationship to Saudi Arabia, Hassan Rouhani wrote that during the Khatami administration, he, as the secretary-general of the National Security Council at that time, reached "a comprehensive and strategic agreement" with the Saudis, but that this agreement was not upheld during the Ahmadinejad government.

72.

Independent translations, including one by the Wall Street Journal, supported the position that Hassan Rouhani had not explicitly accepted the Holocaust's existence.

73.

Hassan Rouhani termed the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates a "huge mistake" and warned the UAE against permitting Israel to have a secure presence in the Persian Gulf.

74.

The poll indicated Hassan Rouhani would have a "tough challenge" in maintaining the support due to the fact that people had high economic expectations from the deal, and it could become his Achilles' heel.

75.

Hassan Rouhani is considered to be a moderate and pragmatic politician.

76.

Hassan Rouhani was elected as president with heavy reformist support, and he pledged to follow through with reformist demands and to bridge divides between reformists and conservatives.