Okay, so moderate Hasan Rowhani has won the Iranian election in a landslide, and his victory was followed by big celebrations in the streets of Teheran, at which the authorities didn't even try to stop the playing of pop music and the western dress.
Several thoughts:
1.) It seems that the mullahs knew they could not risk another publicity disaster a la 2009.
2.) Even as this election transpires, Iran is sending 4,000 troops to Syria to support the Assad regime, even as the US ups its support of the rebels. And let us not forget that the rebel coalition, which is comprised, out of its nine main fighter groups, of seven that are explicitly Islamist, includes those who would shoot a 15-year-old boy to death for insultign Mohammed, and would pull Christian villagers out of their homes, line them up in the village square, and execute them. We're not only pitted squarely against Iran, regardless of the supposed moderation of its new president, but we're sawing off the branch on which we've decided to perch.
3.) As of now, there is no indication there will be any slowdown of Iran's nuclear program.
4.) Supreme Ayatollah Khameni remains the real decision-maker on policy and strategy.
The current gushfest about a new era of unicorns and rainbows - just Google Rowhani's name and scroll through pages of world headlines about "moderate" and "era of new possibilities" - will quickly morph into bewilderment, as this election's place within the grand regional and global scheme comes into view.
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