Abstract
Foreign policy should be considered as an area of government policies that is in line with the domestic policy of the country. The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has also been based on this principle in the period after the victory of the Islamic Revolution and has experienced various discourses in accordance with the preferred political discourse inside the country. In this article, Hassan Rouhani's foreign policy as the president of the 11th and 12th governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been examined. The main question is: What are the characteristics of Hassan Rouhani's foreign policy and what results has it achieved? As a hypothesis, it can be answered as follows that Rouhani's foreign policy is based on “constructive interaction with the world”, “a stronger region instead of the strongest region” and “a world free of violence and extremism” and has been formed with the aim of solving the obstacles to the country's economic growth and development – such as nuclear sanctions. But due to internal and external factors, he could not go beyond the agenda of solving the nuclear issue and pursue other goals. The present article used the descriptive-analytical method and collected its data using a library method.
Keywords: 11th and 12th governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, foreign policy, constructive interaction.
 
Introduction
The foreign policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran has several discourses that originated from the ideology of the political system of this country and each of them created a unique diplomacy in their time. While Rafsanjani is remembered as the president who "reconstructed" the country after the Iran-Iraq war, Khatami is remembered for the "Dialogue of Civilizations" initiative that helped Iran gain access to almost vast areas of the world. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad is mentioned as the president whose foreign policy provoked criticism from mainly Western countries along with heavy sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program. This article examines Hassan Rouhani's interactionist foreign policy in the 11th and 12th governments and tries to answer the question of what characteristics this foreign policy had and what effects it could create on development. In this regard, the components of Rouhani's foreign policy have been analyzed at two conceptual and operational levels.
 
Materials and methods
The present article uses the descriptive-analytical method and the information and data have been collected from various sources and through the library method.
 
Discussions and results
The conceptual evaluation of Rouhani's foreign policy can be done in the framework of three elements of progressivism, pragmatism and regionalism.
1. Progressivism: Rouhani's efforts to reach a nuclear agreement were mainly due to Iran's urgent need to rebuild its economy and thus required to lift economic sanctions. Rouhani's main goal of the nuclear negotiations was not to end the historical problems between Iran and America, but only to end sanctions and open Iran's economy to foreign investment. Therefore, Rouhani's approach to the nuclear agreement was technical and economic rather than political, and for this reason, the JCPOA did not automatically lead to a political opening between Tehran and Washington.
2. Pragmatism: The most obvious example of pragmatism in Rouhani's foreign policy was nuclear negotiations and relations with 5+1 countries.  However, Rouhani could only use pragmatism in foreign policy if the domestic consensus had already been formed.
3. Regionalism: Rouhani may have realized that if he is not going to be disturbed by power centers during the nuclear negotiations, he should make enough concessions on regional issues. But what he may not have realized is that when his government loses control over the country's regional politics, it also loses many of the benefits of the nuclear agreement. In other words, progressivism and spiritual pragmatism were weakened without regionalism.
Evaluation of Rouhani's foreign policy can be seen on two levels. At the international level, the only issue that was correctly defined was the nuclear negotiations. This was considered a very important example of constructive interaction with the international community. However, the nuclear negotiations, which Rouhani initially expected to be short, became long and ended up lasting nearly two years. At the regional level, the Rouhani government followed the general security and political policies of the country. In most regional issues, the government followed the mainstream direction provided by the Supreme National Security Council, where decisions were the product of trying to achieve a comprehensive balance for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Some of the failures of Rouhani's foreign policy can be found in these factors: the change of leadership in Saudi Arabia and the beginning of bin Salman's openly anti-Iranian policies; Trump's inauguration, the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA, the application of maximum pressure and unprecedented sanctions against Iran, the assassination of General Soleimani. In terms of internal factors, the lack of transparency of the political discourse along with a series of unfortunate events (currency crisis and the fall in the value of the national currency, protests in 2016, 2017 and especially 2018 due to gasoline rationing), pointed out the complexity of the decision-making process in foreign policy and insufficient credibility and lack of mission.
 
Conclusion
In a critical view, it can be said that the foreign policy approach of Iran's 11th and 12th administrations ultimately failed to achieve a sustainable and comprehensive outcome in improving international relations and reducing economic pressures. The U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and the inability to establish economic structures independent of U.S. sanctions are examples of the shortcomings of this policy. The foreign policy of these two administrations in the Middle East also faced significant challenges. Although Rouhani's government attempted to improve relations with regional countries, ongoing tensions with Saudi Arabia and Iran's expanding regional influence in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq remained sources of unrest and international pressure.
In summary, the foreign policy of the 11th and 12th administrations of the Islamic Republic of Iran began with an emphasis on diplomacy and engagement with the international community, yielding positive results in the early stages. However, due to both internal and external developments, these policies faced serious challenges, and the outcomes were more limited than initially expected. A critical analysis reveals that despite strengths in international negotiations, these policies ultimately failed in managing the pressures of sanctions and consolidating diplomatic achievements.