Iranian Moderates Make Big Gains In Parliamentary Elections

The most hardline "Principalist" slate in the Majlis elections won only 68 seats, down from its 100 seats in the previous Majlis. "Today the era of confrontation is over", Rouhani added.

The election changed the balance between the two camps, with the moderates winning almost 60 percent of seats after holding less than 25 percent in the previous assembly. Voters countered by rejecting big-name hard-liners who had blocked reforms at home and tried to stymy the nuclear deal with the outside world.

Reformist candidates, who favor more social freedoms and expanded ties with the West, won at least 85 seats in Parliament, according to final results released by the Interior Ministry and broadcast on state TV, the Associated Press reported.

"He will push for reintegration into the global economic platform, particularly with European investment in Iran's energy market", Geranmayeh added of Rouhani.

Reformist allies of moderate President Hassan Rouhani won all 30 parliamentary seats in the Iranian capital, a major boost Sunday that pushed them into a nation-wide lead in crucial elections.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged for privatizing the country's auto making industry.

Preliminary results from Friday's second election, for the powerful Assembly of Experts which monitors the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were also heading Rouhani's way, and could see top conservative clerics eliminated. The Iranian conservatives, sometimes known as principlists, had combed through the candidate lists for both parliament and assembly, removing every centrist and liberal they could. "The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government", he declared in a statement. In a note to subscribers, Ian Bremmer, a geopolitical expert and president of global political risk research firm Eurasia Group, said that the results of the elections showed "Iran is on the upswing and politically stable".

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In his first comment since the polls, Iran's deeply anti-Western Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the high turnout. One of the achievements that the West in general and the United States in particular had hoped to secure from the nuclear agreement was Iran's integration into the region as a positive actor that would contribute to its stability, due especially to its central role in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Without his consent, the nuclear negotiations leading to the accord and the lifting of crippling global sanctions would not have been possible.

"There are people who are hard-liners on certain issues but for instance would be open to economic reforms".

First of all, none of the major political camps has a majority in the parliament. The Supreme Leader (Rahbar), is still the center of gravity of Iranian political power. "I hope that by virtue of Iran having greater commercial interactions with the world, and students exchanges taking place, and perhaps a generation of Iranian leadership changing", he said.

One early result of the elections could be to allow the government to offer new oil and gas contracts to foreign firms, a cornerstone of its plans to raise energy production after worldwide sanctions on Tehran were lifted last month.

PETER KENYON, BYLINE: A trend is emerging in Iranian elections.

While conservatives were wiped out by reformists in Tehran, they retained some seats in other cities and enjoyed strong support in rural areas.