On Wednesday, EA participated in a panel discussion organized by London’s Frontline Club and BBC Persian, examining issues around the Presidential election results and what Hassan Rouhani’s election will mean for Iran.
Chaired by Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News correspondent, the panel comprised EA’s Scott Lucas; Azadeh Moaveni, a former Middle East correspondent for Time magazine and author of Lipstick Jihad, Honeymoon in Tehran; Saeed Barzin an Iran analyst with BBC Persian Service and the BBC Monitoring service; and Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
The discussion addressed questions of why Iranians chose Rouhani, what room Rouhani will be given to maneuver on key issues like talks with the West on Iran’s nuclear program and how the latest signals from the US regarding sanctions could impact on future rounds of talks, and whether Rouhani will be able to make good on his pledges of greater freedoms and release of political prisoners;