THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOREIGN POLICY OF IRAN DURING THE PRESIDENTSHIP OF HASSAN ROUHANI

The presidential elections in Iran in 2013 were held at a time when the country faced significant challenges in economic, political and foreign policy areas. The economy was under heavy sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program. Hassan Rouhani, who was elected president at such times, had an aim to improve the image of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the international community and to show that he and the government were ready to deal seriously with the West, for which he created a cabinet of ministers, most of whom studied in Western universities. Although Rouhani's approach to Iran's foreign policy differs greatly from the one of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the main idea stayed the same - to make Iran the most powerful state in the region. In this case, the event analysis was chosen as the most suitable research method. It should be noted that since Rouhani became the country's president, foreign policy is more active. In order to identify these changes, some of the major turns in its foreign policy were selected by the authors. As a result of the study, the authors concluded that despite the fact that Iran's foreign policy under Rouhani reached some diplomatic victories, external factors strongly hinder him to improve the country's economy.