NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN: …But, again, this isn’t just about uranium but also about undermining an odious regime and creating the conditions for Iran to become a normal country. I’ve rarely been to a more pro-American country, at the grass-roots, and there’s a pent-up anger at corruption and hypocrisy. That doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a revolution anytime soon. But it means that there’s a chance for movement after the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 75 and underwent prostate surgery last year.
In the office of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, whom Khamenei edged out to be supreme leader, I was once jokingly introduced as coming from the “Great Satan.” An aide, referring to Iran’s own regime, immediately quipped: “America is only Baby Satan. We have Big Satan right here at home.”
So, sure, a nuclear deal carries risks and will be ugly and imperfect, but, on balance, it probably reduces the risk that Iran gets the bomb in the next 10 years. It may also, after Ayatollah Khamenei is gone, create an opportunity for Iran to end its chapter in extremism, so that the country is defined less by rapacious ayatollahs and more by those doting matrons in Mashhad. (more)
EDITOR: As reported at NewsLanc by an Iranian emigre who returned for visits after 25 years, the general population is enthusiastically pro-American. The problem is the regime. Iran has the capability of becoming a Western nation under diffrent leadership.
President Obama wants to play for time while preventing further nuclear bomb development. It may not be possible to do business with the current fragmented leadership. But it has been worth the try. It also has enabled us to work closely with the Five + 1.
Even if negotiations are halted, they can be resumed at a future date. Meanwhile the sanctions will continue to bite.
