How a former Iranian president attempted to trade nuclear restraint for global economic relief.

Nature · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran from 2013 to 2021, defined his tenure by pursuing a landmark nuclear agreement with world powers. By promising to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, he sought to bridge the deep distrust between his nation and the West.

Hassan Rouhani, born Hassan Fereydoun in 1948, rose from clerical activism during the 1979 Iranian Revolution to become a central figure in his country's foreign policy. Before his presidency, he served as a top nuclear negotiator in the early 2000s and held various roles in the Supreme National Security Council. His 2013 presidential campaign focused on economic restoration and improving diplomatic relations, leading to his historic 2013 phone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama—the first direct contact between the two nations' leaders since the revolution.

The culmination of these diplomatic efforts was the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Under this framework, Iran agreed to cap uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent and reduce its stockpile to 300 kg, while allowing International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring. In return, international sanctions related to the nuclear program were to be lifted. Rouhani famously stated that the deal offered a path to eliminate mutual distrust, though the agreement faced immediate opposition from U.S. Republicans who viewed it as appeasement.

The agreement’s stability was short-lived. In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA, citing concerns over sunset clauses and the deal's failure to address ballistic missile development. Following the U.S. withdrawal and the subsequent reimposition of sanctions, Iran began reneging on its commitments in 2019. By the end of his second term in 2021, Rouhani’s once-promising diplomatic outreach had largely stalled, and his relationship with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had soured over the perceived concessions made during the negotiations.

Beyond his political career, Rouhani’s academic credentials have been a subject of scrutiny. He earned an MPhil and a PhD in Law from Glasgow Caledonian University in the late 1990s. However, his tenure was marked by controversy, including allegations of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, which critics claimed contained significant unreferenced segments. Despite these challenges, Rouhani remains a significant figure in the history of modern Iranian diplomacy and the complex, often volatile, relationship between Iran and the international community.

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