Can Iranian President Hassan Rouhani satisfy everyone?

Why two locations? Because President Rouhani talked about safeguarding and protecting the state, its sovereignty and the revolution one moment; then the need to address rights and justice at home a few moments later, in Sunday’s inaugural address.

‘The Great Nuclear Question’

Drive out of Tehran across the flat landscape of scrubby almost-desert, on the road to the religious city of Qom, and suddenly four gigantic minarets shimmer out of the dun, dusty heat-haze ahead.

Each, they tell me with pride, 89 metres high, for the 89 years Ayatollah Khomeini, the Father of the Iranian revolution, was alive. It’s still being built, elaborate scaffolding skeins those minarets and the vast dome over the coffin of the Ayatollah.

Pilgrims come from all over the world. Today Afghans, newlyweds from the UAE, Iraqis and Iranians of course – the Shia diaspora paying respects.

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Ask pilgrims here about ‘The Great Nuclear Question’ which precludes all else in the West’s current approach to Iran and people here say they want concessions now from the West on the issue.

The sense is that President Rohani’s call for detente and glasnost over its nuclear intentions, now merits a gesture from the West, something more than the White House’s tentative, qualified “willing partner” overture.

It’s a sentiment you’ll readily hear all over Iran and not just at a shrine for the revolutionary faithful and perhaps conservative sector of opinion here.

Free speech

But what about internal concessions? Just what does the presidential rhetoric about respecting rights and justice inside Iran really mean?

We spent a revealing hour at a vibrant weekly Tehran magazine today. What does justice mean in a country – like many – where journalists have to tread extremely carefully? What do young readers want to change? What do editors here want?

Revealingly, getting answers on these questions is almost impossible. One wrong word and the unsmiling types from the various branches of state security can be on your doorstep.

Instead people say: “We need time. We need to wait and see what the president has in mind.”

Far easier in Iran to say that than say what you want, what rights you need to have the state uphold.

International Editor Lindsey Hilsum answers the 'key questions' on Iran's new president.

But one editor is revealing, albeit it carefully so. He says his paper asked a sample of young Iranians what they wanted by way of greater press freedom.

The answer from them we were told, was resounding. We just want people to be able to print freely and broadcast freely what we want to say, came their answer. It was explained that the constitution of Iran guarantees free speech – so why not uphold the constitution?

Well, perhaps this was what President Rohani was getting at when he spoke about upholding the law and the constitution in his inaugural address yesterday.

It it just possible it was not quite so rhetorical after all? Plenty of Iranians would warmly welcome that.