Trump Means Business

By Emad Kiyaei

Emad Kiyaei is the executive director of the American Iranian Council (AIC), a nonprofit and nonpartisan educational organization seeking to help policy makers and citizens overcome key misunderstandings and misperceptions between the United States and Iran. Emad is also a researcher at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs. His research focuses on the Middle East region, with emphasis on finding avenues for resolving the crisis over Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy, improving US-Iran relations and increasing the prospects for a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone. Previously, Emad was an associate at the Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University, focusing on Middle East and Iranian affairs.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election is fraught with uncertainty for the electorate, political establishment, and the world. The Iranian political establishment is closely observing the contest with an eye on the implications for Iran’s own national security and for the fragile region it resides in. With the United States’ major military, economic and political presence in the Middle East, the elections can’t be ignored.

In Iran, there are three main camps divided by different views of what either outcome would spell for Iran: the neutral onlookers, flanked by the pro-Clinton and pro-Trump camps. In the first camp is the Iranian Government. Their official position, voiced last week by President Hassan Rouhani at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, is that the final winner is irrelevant: what matters is whether the new U.S. President will “respect the rights and dignities of nations” and be willing to reduce tensions with Iran. This stance follows international norms for states to avoid interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries.

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