Michael Singh is the Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
The election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran's next president has prompted two sorts of reactions among U.S. officials and Iran analysts. Some see in Rouhani's victory a reformist resurgence and are urging the Obama administration to reach out in an effort to "strengthen" him, much as the Clinton administration sought to do after the election of Mohammad Khatami in 1997. Others see a wily trick by Iran's supreme leader, seeking to slough off the pressure of sanctions by presenting a smiling face to the world and buy more time with diplomacy while expanding Iran's nuclear activities in the background.
The challenge for the Obama administration is that it cannot yet know which interpretation is correct. It cannot dismiss the possibility that international pressure on Iran has finally produced the sort of change it has been waiting for, but it also cannot risk alleviating that painstakingly-accumulated pressure based on mere hope or speculation...
