Professor Abbas Milani, Director of Stanford's Iranian Studies Program
On Sunday, January 8, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away at the age of 82.
In an interview with Reuters, Professor Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford, said Rafsanjani's death could not have come at a worse time, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
"With what is happening in the U.S. and the possible instability that is going to come in U.S. policy you needed a voice of reason and pragmatism that had some heft to it. He was that voice."
"Losing that voice is going to make it more likely that any mishap or miscalculation by the Trump team will beget a more unreasonable, more radical, more potentially destructive response by the Iranian regime," he added.
Read the full Reuters article here.