Iranian Rial Hits Historic Low Following U.S. Election Results
Over the past week, the Iranian government repeatedly downplayed the impact of the U.S. election on the country's internal affairs. However, this afternoon, shortly after the election results were announced, Iran's currency plunged to its lowest value in history.
The rial traded at 703,000 to the U.S. dollar before recovering slightly.
This sharp decline comes despite significant growth in Iran's oil exports under the Biden administration over the past four years, with exports reportedly increasing fivefold and oil revenues seeing a major boost.
The exact cause of the drastic currency drop remains unclear, though Iran's central bank has previously attempted to stabilize the exchange rate by injecting more hard currency into the market.
-- Parisa Sohbati
Pakistan's Relations With Washington Unlikely To Change Under Trump
Pakistani leaders quickly congratulated Donald Trump on his election to a second term as U.S. president.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was looking "forward to working closely with the incoming Administration to further strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-U.S. partnership."
His coalition partner, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, hoped that the future Trump administration "will prioritize peace and help end the cycle of perpetual global conflict."
For months, supporters of jailed former populist Prime Minister Imran Khan had rooted for a Trump victory in the hope that his reelection would alleviate Khan's suffering.
However, Trump did not say or post about Khan during his campaign.
Project 2025 -- an initiative conceived by the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington that many predict Trump will use as a policy template -- says that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has "provided an opportunity to reset the deeply troubled U.S.–Pakistan relationship" but warns that "U.S. policy must be clear-eyed and realistic about the perfidiousness" of "the military-political rule in Pakistan."
Pundits in Washington, however, do not see Pakistan figuring prominently on Trump's agenda for now.
– Abubakar Siddique
Taliban Wants To Open 'New Chapter' With Trump
In a carefully worded statement, Afghanistan's Taliban government has expressed hopes for a fresh start in bilateral relations with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.
It expressed hope that "the upcoming U.S. administration will take realistic steps to foster tangible progress in the relationship between the two countries. This would allow both nations to open a new chapter of relations based on mutual engagement," Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The Taliban spokesman reminded Trump that his first administration, between 2017 and 2021, negotiated the Doha agreement with the Taliban. The February 2020 deal paved the way for the final withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
It concluded Washington's two decades of war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but critics saw it as a prelude to the Taliban toppling the pro-Western Afghan republic in August 2021.
During his campaign, Trump had criticized the Biden administration for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. He lamented the loss of the strategic Baghram airbase near Kabul and leaving behind billions of dollars in military equipment to the Taliban.
-- Abubakar Siddique
Taiwan Cautiously Watches Whether U.S. Support For Ukraine Will Shift Under Trump
By Reid Standish
Following President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House, one of the key foreign policy questions for his incoming administration is how it will affect U.S. backing for Kyiv in its war with Russia.
How things play out for Ukraine is also being closely watched in Taiwan, a self-governing island of 23 million that China views as its own territory and has vowed to unify with the mainland by peace or by force.
Trump has criticized the level of U.S. support for Ukraine's war effort and promised to end the conflict, even before his inauguration in January. After Trump's reelection, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy heaped praise on the president-elect as uncertainty over U.S. backing looms over Kyiv.
This hasn't been lost on top Taiwanese officials, as it could be something of a bellwether for Taipei as Beijing is expected to step up pressure.
"No matter who is elected, we have to let them understand that Taiwan has the determination to defend itself, and the importance of Taiwan's economic security and strategic geopolitical position," Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said before Trump was declared winner.
Since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan has looked to tie Kyiv and Taipei's fates together. Top Taiwanese officials have also advocated publicly for continued U.S. military support for Ukraine as some U.S. commentators and Congressional Republicans have called for scaling it back, arguing that it detracts from being able to arm Taiwan, which they view as a more urgent task.
"That's why we're asking everybody to support Ukraine. It's the best way to deter China," Roy Chun Lee, Taiwan’s former deputy foreign minister and current envoy to the EU, told RFE/RL in a 2023 interview.
Speaking ahead of the November 5 U.S. election, Taiwanese officials said they were preparing for either outcome, with Taiwanese Economy Minister J.W. Kuo acknowledging to reporters that Trump could introduce measures that might prove harmful for Taiwan's semiconductor industry, which currently produces more than 90 percent of the world's high-performance microchips.
In recent months, Trump has suggested that he thinks Taiwan isn't giving the United States enough in exchange for U.S. defense support and that it has taken away U.S. semiconductor manufacturing business.
But what a better deal for Trump might look like isn't clear.
In an interview with The Washington Post in September, he said that Beijing wouldn't attack Taiwan "while I'm president...but eventually they will." In a similar sit down with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board in October, Trump said that he would impose tariffs on China if it sought to blockade Taiwan.
He added that he wants Taiwan's leaders to step up their defense investments, which currently sit at around 2.6 percent of the island's gross domestic product.
"They should spend 10 [percent]," Trump said.
Far-right columnist Zsolt Bayer of the pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet tells the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, to "go home":
Background: Pressman has been the target of attacks by the Hungarian government and the pro-government media due to his criticism of the government in Budapest over its anti-American messaging, anti-LGBT measures, and pressure on free media and civil society.
Bayer writes: "Pressman perfectly represented and symbolized everything that deep state, cancel culture, woke, LGBTQ and all the other insanities mean. That is why he was sent here. Right here in Hungary, one of the last little islands of normality. Sent here, sent here by the Democrat administration, the deep state...to make us feel cared for. He arrived and did his job. Never before has the deep state's interference in the internal affairs of our country been so obvious, so impertinent, so intrusive, so intolerable."
-- Gabriella Horn
Russian opposition figures comment on Trump’s victory:
“Trump defeated Kamala decisively! No one predicted this. Now he has a mandate for change. I don’t know what will happen, but it will definitely not be boring!” -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, exiled former oil tycoon, wrote on X.
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, tried to downplay the possible impact of Trump’s victory on U.S.-Russia relations. “The entire feed is filled with Trump. Everything will be fine, why are you so worried?” Zhdanov wrote.
A Russian opposition activist residing in Ukraine, Roman Popkov, expressed hope that even if Trump makes some peace proposals to Putin, which would be favorable for the Russian leader, they would be rejected by Russia, pushing the president-elect to implement stricter policies towards Russia:
“The only hope right now is this: In January, after the inauguration, Trump will present Putin with a plan for an agreement to stop the hostilities. It’s not about statements in Trump’s usual style: ‘I called Putin and said, ‘Vladimir, we need to end this war!’ We had a very strong conversation.’
"No, it’s about specific proposals from the new administration that Trump will find reasonable and quite beneficial for Russia. But these proposals will still be unacceptable to Putin. Because Putin lives on a different planet. Once again, like in the days before February 24, 2022, Putin doesn’t feel the ground beneath his feet; he wants everything, or almost everything, again. Then Trump will consider that he’s not being regarded as a ‘strong leader,’ with all the consequences that follow,” Popkov wrote on Facebook.
Andriy Sadoviy, the mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv:
"Republican Trump won the election, but democracy won again. America has once again proved that democracy is not just a comfortable word. It lives in the ability of society to make decisions freely. Even when not everyone likes it."
Activist Hamid Asefi in Tehran speaks to Radio Farda:
"The important point is that many people are indulging in wishful thinking, assuming that Trump will come and overthrow the Islamic republic. However, Trump's policy has never been about regime change, but rather focused on negotiations. While the Islamic republic largely ignored him in the past four years, many politicians and analysts in Iran now believe they can easily strike a deal with Trump, as he is a dealmaker. "
-- Hannah Kaviani
Georgia’s Political Landscape Eyes Changes With Trump Presidency
By Luka Pertaia
As world leaders are congratulating Donald Trump on his reelection, both Georgia’s ruling party and opposition believe that a Trump presidency will further their political goals.
Georgia’s divisive Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze congratulated Trump on his victory, expressing hope that his leadership will “ensure a restart in Georgian-US relations”.
One-time close allies and strategic partners, the U.S. and Georgia have recently experienced historic lows in their increasingly strained relations.
Georgian Dream officials have lashed out at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, accusing it of supporting “two revolution attempts” between 2020 and 2023.
In response to what it sees as democratic backsliding, the U.S. has imposed financial sanctions on two Georgian security officials and visa restrictions on numerous judges and over 60 other Georgians, including (so far unnamed) senior government figures.
Following the contested October 26 parliamentary elections, which the opposition claims were rigged, the U.S. State Department noted that international observers did not deem the results free and fair, and called for an investigation.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the parliamentary majority of Georgian Dream, stated that Trump, like Georgian Dream, supports “peace, prosperity, economic growth, and family values.”
Meanwhile, opposition parties, fighting for reelection, hope for stricter U.S. policies toward the Georgian government, which has been under Georgian Dream control since 2012.
“The support that Georgian people have from the United States will only strengthen,” Nika Melia, a leader of the Coalition for Change, told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service.
Tina Bokuchava, chair of the former ruling party United National Movement, asserted at a protest rally that a government rigging elections will not be welcomed by any U.S. administration, whether Biden, Trump, or otherwise.
Georgia's pro-European president, Salome Zurabishvili, who, like the opposition, refused to recognize the validity of the election results, alleging massive fraud and Russian interference, has also congratulated Donald Trump.
“A strong United States -- our strategic partner and friend of 33 years -- is needed now more than ever to support Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, bolster regional security and stability, and safeguard our freedom, and independence,” she wrote on X.
Iran Should Consider Dialogue With The U.S., Says Pro-Reform Cleric
By Parisa Sohbati and Kian Sharifi
Given how hard-liners in Iran feel about Trump, the idea of sitting down with the president-elect seems very far-fetched – but it’s not impossible, and an Iranian cleric insists that decision-makers in Tehran should consider it.
Religious scholar Mohammad Taqi Fazel Meybodi, a member of the pro-reform Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers, said today that “regardless of who is in power in America, Iran should consider direct negotiations” with Washington.
He said that holding talks with the U.S. does not have to result in re-establishing diplomatic relations but argued, “We can only stand up to America and say what we need to say in direct talks.”
Meybodi asserted that Iran has leverage, but “if we continue as we are, we’ll only suffer more.”
The cleric’s comments are unlikely to be well received by ardent supporters of the Islamic republic. However, the assembly that he’s associated with is no stranger to making comments that shock hard-liners.
Last month, the association appeared to advocate for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which contradicts Iran’s policy of not recognizing the state of Israel.
The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Iran in April 1980, in the midst of the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.
Direct talks between Tehran and Washington as part of the so-called P5+1 format resulted in the signing of the nuclear deal in 2015. Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
When Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, Iran insisted on holding indirect talks with the U.S. to revive the agreement. Talks through intermediaries kicked off in April 2021, but negotiations have stalled since September 2022.