Former president joins growing push for overhaul of Iran's rule
political establishment for a fundamental change of course, with former president Hassan Rouhani joining a growing chorus warning that continued rigidity could lead to paralysis or trigger renewed unrest.
The convergence — from reformist academics to former officials close to the Supreme Leader — points to an unusual degree of agreement that the status quo, especially after the June war with Israel, is unsustainable.
“There is no way to save the country except for all of us to become servants of the people — to recognize that sovereignty belongs to the people,” moderate outlet Entekhab quoted Rouhani as saying on Thursday. “The Iranian nation owns Iran.”
Rouhani also urged an overhaul of media regulations to allow private broadcasters alongside the state’s. “We should have 10, 20, 30 channels that are private, owned by the people,” he said. “If we want the people to be with us, this is the way.”
‘Obligation to negotiate’
Rouhani’s remarks come amid a season of acute pressures — a setback in the June conflict with Israel, an economy battered by sanctions and mismanagement, and rolling water and electricity outages in a sweltering summer that have pushed many Iranians to the edge.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has in recent weeks all but raised his hands in defeat, implying that real power lies elsewhere when it comes to key policies such as relations with the United States.
Rouhani picked up where Pezeshkian left off.
“If we can improve relations with Europe, our neighbors, and both East and West—even reduce tensions with the United States—and it serves our interests, then why not?” he said.
“Not only is there nothing wrong with it, it is our duty and obligation.”
‘Iran in ruins’
Prominent sociologist Taqi Azad Armaki went further, calling for an ideological shift toward a normal state.
“The government has only two options: change its outdated approaches or face a deadlock,” he said on Wednesday. “Iran must embrace global norms to overcome its political, economic, and cultural challenges and improve its international image.”
But the most scathing take came from former MP Parvaneh Salahshoouri, who appeared to address Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directly.
“With its ‘Islamic Ummah’ doctrine, the Islamic Republic built neither an ummah nor preserved the Iranian nation,” she posted on X, citing the Arabic word for religious community—central to the thinking and behavior of Iran’s theocratic rule.
“What remains is a ruined Iran, and from the Islamic Ummah, only curses and hatred toward it,” she added, leaving little doubt as to whom she blamed with direct references to Khamenei’s catchphrases.
“(The Islamic Republic) squandered ‘dignity and wisdom’ with the ‘no war, no negotiations’ stance — and yet there was both war and negotiations — and now it is even struggling to preserve Iran itself.”
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