Middle East - Iran’s Supreme Leader Needs Obama’s Deal - by Djavad Khadem

Ali Khamenei needs a nuclear deal with the U.S. to preserve the power of the Supreme Leader after he passes. 

As U.S. and Iranian representatives fiercely negotiate a grand nuclear deal, I am reminded of Churchill's famous saying: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.”

Secretary of State John Kerry talks about leaving the negotiation table if Iran does not accept the 5+1 while Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, says through various mouthpieces that it is America that needs these talks. Kerry wants a sequential deal, first political then technical, but Khamenei asks for a simultaneous one.

While Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, walk the walk in Geneva, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani talks the talk, applauding progresses made abroad along with yet to be verified domestic economic achievements.  It is déjà vu as he attempts to cool down mounting popular frustrations at home.

Israelis and Saudis can tear themselves apart reminding their American ally of the long-term threats to stability should the Shia revolutionary regime obtain U.S. and international recognition for its nuclear threshold capabilities. The world can speculate on the next move to be made on the Iranian exchequer.

The House of Khamenei, that focal point of real power in Iran known to all Iranians as The Beyt, can push its pawns ever farther into every single conflict in the region. America seems to be ready to make yet another wrong decision before she eventually decides on the right one.

Read more: Iran’s Supreme Leader Needs Obama’s Deal - The Daily Beast