2 years into nuclear deal, US policy on Iran needs major makeover

July marks the second anniversary of the nuclear agreement between the Iranian regime and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. Former U.S.President Barack Obama envisioned the agreement — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — as a potential starting point for a broader rapprochement between the ruling theocracy and the West.

Obama had insisted that with Hassan Rouhani as the regime’s “moderate” president, Tehran would begin to exhibit a more positive behavior. Now, in his second term in office, the promise of moderation under Rouhani’s leadership has proven empty. That is because Rouhani neither wants nor is capable of reform. After all, it is not the president but the supreme leader who defines the contours of the regime’s short-term and long-term strategic direction.

That the possibility of moderation in the Iranian theocracy is a total delusion was reflected in Secretary of Defense James Mattis's recent interview with Washington state’s Mercer Island High School newspaper.

missed the May 19 Iranian presidential election as “not really an election” and highlighted the stark differences between the ideology of the Iranian regime and the character of the Iranian people

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/342377-2-years-into-nuclear-deal-us-iran-policy-needs-major