Election Exposed Deep Polarization Within Iran

Posted: May 23rd, 2017

By Suzanne Maloney

Suzanne Maloney is deputy director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow in the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy and Energy Security and Climate Initiative, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. She is the editor of Markaz, a blog on politics in and policy toward the Middle East published by the Brookings Institution. Maloney previously served as an external advisor to senior State Department officials on long-term issues related to Iran. Before joining Brookings, she served on the secretary of state's policy planning staff, as Middle East advisor for ExxonMobil Corporation, and director of the 2004 Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. policy toward Iran, chaired by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. She holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel sat down with Suzanne Maloney, Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, to discuss how the results from last Friday’s Iranian presidential election could impact Iranian domestic and foreign policy moving forward.

The Cipher Brief: Leading up to the Iranian presidential election, polls showed incumbent President Hassan Rouhani and main hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi competing in a tight race. How surprised were you by Rouhani’s decisive victory after he obtained 57 percent of the vote compared to Raisi’s 38 percent?

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