tests and carry out democratic reforms during his second term.
"We
hope that if Rouhani wanted to change Iran's relationship with the rest of the
world, those are the things he could do," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was accompanying President Donald Trump.
Rouhani, a
cleric who, with foreign minister Javad Zarif broke the taboo of holding direct
talks with the United States and reached an international deal in 2015 to curb
Iran's nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions, won 57
percent of the vote in Friday's election.
He defeated
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric and acolyte of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
who holds ultimate power in Iran's complex, hybrid system of theocratic and
republican elements.
Trump's
administration is likely to keep putting pressure on Iran over its weapons
programs, as well as what it sees as Tehran's efforts to destabilize the Middle
East, former U.S. officials and analysts said.
"I
think the Trump administration will remain pretty consistent on this issue. So
I don't expect any change" in U.S. policy toward Iran, said Reuel Marc Gerecht,
a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a former CIA
Iran specialist.
Tillerson's
comments at a news conference in Riyadh appeared to reinforce that view,
although he left the door open to further talks with Iran.
He said the
United States hopes Rouhani will "begin a process of dismantling Iran's
network of terrorism," and ending its financing of terrorist groups, as
well as providing them personnel and logistical support "and everything
they provide to these destabilizing forces that exist in this region. We also
hope that he puts an end to their ballistic missile testing."
Despite the
nuclear deal, the United States still considers Iran a "state sponsor of
terrorism" for its support of groups such as Hezbollah, the Lebanese
Shiite Muslim militia.
"We
also hope that he restores the rights of Iranians, for freedom of speech, of
organization, so that Iranians can live the life they deserve," Tillerson
said. "That's what we hope this election will bring."
Trump is
visiting Iran's main regional rivals, Saudi Arabia and Israel, on his first
foreign trip.
When Rouhani
was first elected in 2013, it was taken as a sign that Iran's leaders might be
more open to the West and would change the confrontational stance they had
taken against the United States and its allies in the aftermath of the 1979
Islamic Revolution.
While
Khamenei gave Rouhani some leeway to negotiate the nuclear deal, other reforms
he sought at home, especially greater political freedoms for Iranians, were
stymied by Khamenei and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Trump, a
Republican, has harshly criticized the nuclear accord struck under predecessor
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, but he has kept it alive while signaling a
desire to confront Iran more directly.
Washington
says Tehran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil
war, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the Hezbollah political party and militia in
Lebanon contribute to instability in the Middle East.
Ahmad
Majidyar, an expert with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, forecast
growing tensions between the United States and Iran over Iraq and Syria, where
U.S.-backed forces and Iran-supported Shiite Muslim militias are fighting
Islamic State.
"Washington
and Tehran are de facto allies in the fight against Islamic State,"
Majidyar said. "But now ISIS is on the verge of defeat, we see signs of
tensions between Iranian backed- militia forces and the U.S. forces," he
said.
By
coincidence, the United States on Wednesday faced a deadline for renewing
sanctions waivers that would maintain the nuclear deal. Trump decided to do so,
but also imposed narrow sanctions against two Iranian defense officials and an
Iranian company that the U.S. government said were linked to Iran's ballistic
missile program.
Rouhani's
re-election is likely to make it harder for the Trump administration to
galvanize international support for European Union, United Nations sanctions or
other tough action, analysts said.
Rouhani and
Zarif have presented a more conciliatory face to the world, traveling often to
European capitals and in Zarif's case, conversing easily in fluent English and
giving frequent interviews to Western media.
"It
makes it much more difficult to isolate Iran internationally when you have a
foreign minister like Zarif," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran scholar at
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Without
sanctions such as those that slashed Iran's oil revenues and barred it from the
international financial system, which were effective because China and Iran's
other Asian oil customers cooperated, the U.S. is left with more targeted
measures against individuals, companies or organizations that assist in Iran's
ballistic missile program or are found to have violated human rights.
"The
last thing the Chinese are interested in doing is enacting new sanctions
against Iran," Sadjadpour said.
REUTERS*
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