‘It’s conventional wisdom that Iran came to the negotiating table because of sanctions. The economy was in trouble, and the country was desperate, so they had to,’ said Michael Ledeen, once he and I were deep into our conversation about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. ‘I’m not sure that’s correct. It may well be that Iran came to the negotiating table because President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif convinced the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, that if they went to the table, they would get everything they wanted from President Obama. Because, they said, America’s will has been broken, and the Americans are prepared to make endless concessions just to keep talking.’

For Ledeen, Iran has been a consuming concern during a five decade career as an academic historian and with the US government, in which he served as an advisor to President Reagan’s Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, and as a consultant on counterterrorism to subsequent Republican administrations. In his view, Iran lies at the epicentre of the Middle East’s troubles – hence his long held position that regime change is a necessary condition for a broader democratic transformation of the region. Hence, too, his scathing critique of Obama’s outreach to Iran, which quickly established itself as a wedge issue when the new, Republican-dominated US Congress returned to its deliberations in January.

‘I’m not convinced that there’s going to be a deal,’ Ledeen claimed. ‘Khamenei doesn’t want to deal with United States, he wants to destroy us. He says that every week – sometimes every day in a good week. So why should he make a deal when he’s getting everything from us now without a deal?’

Read the article in full at Fathom Journal.