PBS高端访谈:选民希望伊朗下任总统能让生活更富足
时间：2017-07-24 02:50:12
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The people of Iran go to the polls tomorrow to vote in a controlled, but still heated presidential election. From Tehran, special correspondent Reza Sayah reports.
It's the closing stretch in Iran's presidential race. And the capital, Tehran, is at fever pitch, from the streets, to sports
arenas2, and campaign headquarters.
The candidates' foot soldiers make a final push to win over voters.
It's an election that will pit liberals vs. conservatives, determine domestic policy, and shape Iran's relations with the West.
Zeinab Asgharpour wants another four years from
incumbent3 President Hassan Rouhani.
These last days can make a huge difference. It's up to us to whip up excitement. If we do that, God willing, we will have good results.
Rouhani's government signed the historic nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers in 2015,
the first agreement involving Washington and Tehran since Iran's 1979 revolution. The deal lifted international sanctions, giving Iran access to global markets.
Have them tell you what they have done for the past 38 years. What I have done in the past four years is quite clear.
But Iran's economy is still struggling. The moderate reformer and his supporters say, let's be patient and move forward.
Maybe we didn't have an actual war, but there was a domestic struggle. We faced harsh sanctions. People suffered to survive. The last thing we want is to go
backwards4.
But Rouhani supporters are nervous. There is a serious conservative challenge from hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi.
"Come this weekend, Rouhani is gone," cries rally leader Mahdi Armaghani.
We believe we are
standing5 by the side of God, and God will definitely stand by us.
Raisi is Iran's former top
prosecutor6, linked to mass executions of political dissidents in 1988.
He's never been elected to office, but is backed by the clerical establishment, an important
endorsement7.
Some say he's being
groomed8 to succeed Iran's
supreme9 leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In campaign speeches, Raisi accuses Rouhani of ignoring the poor and failing to deliver on the promised benefits of the nuclear agreement.
Most of our challenges can be solved with our nation's resources, our potential, strong leadership, our people's revolutionary values.
At this Raisi rally, a film
taunts10 President Rouhani, suggesting he sold out his revolutionary values to
cozy11 up to Washington.
All these sanctions are in place. We lost our dignity. There's no doubt it's time for change.
Raisi's backers are mostly conservative,
devoted12 to Iran's revolutionary values and deeply suspicious of the West.
His main attention will be on us, inside the border. Some still chant "Death to America."
Rouhani's supporters want to silence those chants. They demand social and political reform and better relations with the West.
America is bad, but it's not all bad. If we keep fighting and beating ourselves up, nothing will ever get done.
Tehran-based political
analyst15 Mohammad Marandi says President Donald
Trump16's aggressive tone towards Iran,
coupled with some U.S. sanctions still in effect, have put Rouhani's reelection in
jeopardy17.
Just this week, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile program.
They have not abided by their side of the bargain. And by doing so, they hurt President Rouhani, his credibility.
Marandi says, no matter who wins the vote, U.S.-Iran relations will remain icy, and, he says, there is little chance of confrontation.
The Iranians recognize that the United States is in a very difficult position, that it cannot launch another war. I don't think that there is any chance of military conflict.
In Northern Tehran this week, this has been a nightly ritual, people in cars, on foot making a lot of noise for their favorite candidate.
Maybe one of the most surprising aspects this campaign is how tolerant security forces have been.
People are able to gather, demonstrate, and chant slogans, even slogans that were very
taboo18 just eight years ago.
When an estimated 25,000 Rouhani supporters packed Tehran's main sports
arena1 this week,
the loudest cheers were for Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate whose defeat in 2009 sparked mass protests by the Green Movement.
The government crushed the protests, but the color green sits next to the Rouhani campaign's purple banners, still
symbolizing19 the demand for democratic change.
No matter who voters are supporting, their number one demand is for the next president to make life more
affordable20.
I think that the important thing for Iranians right now is the state of the economy.
Three out of 10 young Iranians don't have jobs. Many can't afford to get married or buy a home. Rouhani wants more time to fix the economy.
The lifting of international sanctions increased oil sales and
curbed21 inflation,
but the billions of dollars in foreign investment President Rouhani promised have yet to arrive.
Former banker and economic analyst Sadegh Samii says Iran's economy will continue to struggle as long as U.S. sanctions continue to block Iran from the international
banking24 system.
If I want to transfer $1,000 to my children to Canada through the banking system, it's impossible.
Even European banks are afraid of being fined by the U.S.
Treasury25 if they work with Iran.
Without the Western money, without the Western banking system, nothing, nothing can possibly function within this country.
No incumbent president in Iran has failed to win a second term since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Zeinab Asgharpour and fellow Rouhani supporters roam Tehran's streets, pleading for voters to keep that
streak26 alive.
For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Reza Sayah in Tehran. undefined
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