I think it can happen if the neocons will stand down and give things a chance to work out. The way I read Iran’s election, the new guy, Hasan Rouhani, was elected on a platform based on reviving Iran’s economy, getting sanctions lifted, and re-engaging with the West. A friend of mine travels to Iran for business and tells me her friends and customers in Iran are all for such a change in course and like Americans. Pat Buchanan pens a thoughtful essay on the subject of a deal with Iran.
Hasan Rouhani was elected with 51 percent of the vote by the constituency that voted against Ahmadinejad in 2009. His triumph was due to his endorsement by former presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Both had been kept off the ballot by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Rouhani is a founding father of the Islamic Republic and was a close ally of Ayatollah Khomeini. But he was elected on a pledge to revive the economy, get sanctions lifted, and re-engage with the West.
He won on a promise of better times for the Iranian people and an end to Iran’s isolation.
Yet the only way he can achieve these goals is to come to terms with Obama on Iran’s nuclear program.
And as he was once Iran’s lead negotiator on that program, Rouhani knows exactly what is required.
Despite the decades of acrimony between us, the basic elements of a Washington-Tehran deal are there.
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