DAILY BEAST COLUMN: …In 2015 the complexities of the Mideast conflicts, alliances and enmities are positively kaleidoscopic as the players realize the enemy of their enemy is their enemy even when, sometimes, he’s their friend.
And with every passing day there’s also a growing realization on both sides of the nuclear negotiating table that even if the problematic questions about numbers of centrifuges, disposal of nuclear materials and the sanction-lifting calendar can finally be resolved, neither side can be trusted to keep the deal because—crucially—neither government can trust itself…
This was always true to some extent. The question of who’s really in charge in Iran—who’s the go-to mullah or power player who can really deliver a deal—has plagued American efforts to reach understandings with Tehran since the earliest days of the revolution. It led to the humiliation of the Carter administration during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981, and the scandalous performance of the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra intrigues of the mid-1980s. And on the American side the reflexive defense of Israel’s interests, as perceived by the U.S. Congress, dating back to the Clinton administration, has torpedoed one attempt after another to find rapprochement with Iran… (more)
