Why Can’t We Be Friends?

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Rouhani’s mentor, former president Mohammad Khatami, “was a coward who declined to confront the guards,” says Amir. “Rouhani, on the other hand, is taking them on. He may not have enough power to win, but at least he’s bravely trying.”

Ali Alfoneh, an Iran watcher at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., notes that Rouhani’s government has canceled funding for a number of civilian projects that in the past have been awarded to the guards. And the internal struggle, Alfoneh says, could affect negotiations with the Saudis because “the Revolutionary Guards have everything to lose if there is an agreement.”

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