Iran pres. poll necessitates change in West’s Iran policy: Expert

The Western governments have to reconsider their policies vis-à-vis Iran following the landmark June 14 presidential election, an analyst says.

“It is now up to the Western regimes to fundamentally change their policy towards Iran and to treat the Iranian people with the democratic respect that they deserve,” Finian Cunningham wrote in a column for Press TV on Sunday.

He said the Iranian people defeated the Western government’s bullying tactics “including the threats of war, to demonstrate that Iran is a democracy of immense civility” through their massive turnout in the 11th presidential election which gave cleric Hassan Rohani a landslide victory.

“The main point is that those Western pundits who insinuated that the Iranian people would boycott the election have been proven spectacularly wrong. The Western propaganda is seen to be so far from reality and ineffectual in its purpose,” wrote Cunningham.

After his victory, Rohani called on the West to talk to the Iranian nation fairly and respect the Islamic Republic’s rights in order to receive an appropriate response.

Rohani emerged victorious in Iran’s 11th presidential election, which was marked by the high voter turnout of 72.7 percent.

Cunningham stated that the Western governments would no longer have any pretext to “justify their continuing punishment of the Iranian people with these barbaric sanctions.”

The West, led by the United States, has imposed a series of sanctions on the Islamic Republic on the pretext that Iran may be pursuing a military program under the cover of its nuclear energy activities.

Iran has vehemently rejected the allegations, saying that its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it is entitled to such a program as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.