NewsMine — war-on-terror — iran — elections-2005 — Viewing Item

Commentators predict iranians oppose conservative candidate Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=20995 http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=20995 INTERNATIONAL 06.27.2005 Monday - ISTANBUL 16:57 Rafsanjani Predicted to Win 2/3 of Votes By Mirza Cetinkaya Published: Friday 24, 2005 zaman.com Commentators predict that different elements of Iranian society will unite in the second round of the presidential elections in Iran to prevent an "extremely conservative" candidate from taking the presidential office. They expect that moderate conservative Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani would win the elections. Moscow-based Center of Modern Iran Studies President Radzhab Safarov told Zaman that he predicted Rafsanjani would win the elections with a large majority of votes. "Reformists, youth, women, religious circles and the main elements of the state will unite to support Rafsanjani against the "ultra-conservative" candidate Mahmoud Ahmedinajad. According to Safarov, the Iranian people have grasped the seriousness of the issue and will elect Rafsanjani as president with 60 or 65 percent of votes. Noting that Rafsanjani has now a position that is "adequately reformist", Safarov asserted that the process of ending the international isolation in Iran started during the moderate conservative candidate's eight-year office as prime minister. If Ahmedinajad is elected president, he warned, Iran's relations with the international community would deteriorate and could take on "a very passive character". According to some commentators, Tehran Mayor Ahmedinajad only managed to win 19 percent of the votes because his radicalism was not known to many people at that time. Safarov also predicted that Turkey would not participate in any possible operations that the US might launch against Iran in the new term. "The US needs Turkey's support in many international and regional developments, but this support would never reach a level that could threaten Iranian-Turkish relations. Turkey would not consider this," Safarov said, as any radical change could affect Tukey too. Whoever is elected, however, Safarov does not expect any radical changes would occur in Turkish policy on Iran. Moscow

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