Iranian moderates who back the historic nuclear deal reached last July have won majorities in both Parliament and the assembly that appoints the country’s supreme leader, reports say.
- In Iran’s Parliament, the New York Times writes, “reformists … won at least 85 seats. Moderate conservatives, who also supported the nuclear agreement, won 73.” Together that means 158 of the chamber’s 290 seats will be held by non-“hard-liner” legislators.
- In the country’s 88-seat “assembly of experts,” which would be responsible for selecting a successor to 76-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, moderates won a 59 percent majority.*
President Hassan Rouhani—a centrist with reformist leanings who backs greater social and economic freedoms and better relations with the West—is up for re-election in 2017; the Guardian calls this year’s results a “humiliating blow” to the hard-liners who have objected to his policies.
*Correction, Feb. 29, 2016: This post originally misspelled Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s last name.