Rafsanjani calls for radical rethink of foreign policy

Khaleeji Times:

Top cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the frontrunner in the race to become Iran’s next president, said on Tuesday the Islamic regime needed a radical rethink of the way it deals with the international community. READ MORE

In a televised campaign broadcast, the pragmatic conservative also took a fresh swipe at religious hardliners and admitted the 26-year-old theocracy needed to better respond to the demands of young people.

“There are new demands. Nobody should think that we can act by employing the same literature, the same policies or the same attitudes that we had at the beginning of the revolution or at the end of the (Iran-Iraq) war,” Rafsanjani said of the regime’s relationship with its burgeoning youth population.

“The situation is changing rapidly. To respond to the legitimate demands of this new generation, new solutions are necessary,” the 70-year-old regime veteran said in his television appearance.

Although Rafsanjani asserted that “the objectives of the revolution are rooted in our culture and beliefs”, he added that Iran needed “new conditions at home” and “a new form of interaction with the world”.

“Globalisation is not a slogan. The world is moving closer together and humanity has a common destiny. We have to take the international climate into account and profit from it,” he asserted.

“We have to think global, while at the same time remain attached to the values of our revolution.”

His comments were a marked departure from the usual rhetoric from a regime totally at odds with the United States and much of the international community.

“Staying put or moving backwards, reactionary or dogmatic ideas are a poison,” said the frontrunner in the June 17 elections, seated on a simple chair in a television studio.

“With a free spirit, with reason and reflection and based on public opinion, we need to move forward and assure our interests.”

The repackaging of Rafsanjani continues.