"Iran's the Island of stability in the XXI Century Middle East"

"... In a quite tangible sense, Rouhani won his current mandate through a social coalition we might call “Green movement plus”: the 2009 supporters of reformist candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, plus provincial urban fence sitters, plus ethnic minorities. Given the region’s further unraveling this summer -- Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Turkey -- it may well be the case that voting for Rouhani was the most revolutionary act available for Iranians en masse. It was for this reason that Roger Cohen in the New York Times branded the Islamic Republic an “island of stability” earlier this month -- echoing Carter’s Tehran toast to the Shah in December 1977 -- without a hint of irony...."