ASHARQ AL-AWSAT
by Amir Taheri
September 11, 2015

….Unless he is a prisoner of his fantasies, Obama is surely aware that the way Tehran regards the deal is diametrically different from his. In Tehran, the ruling elite see the deal as a piece of candy to keep Obama happy with himself, without committing Iran to any definite course of action. To them, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action (JCPOA), which Obama is peddling as “the chance of a lifetime”, is nothing but a wish list to be used a la carte. They have not even bothered with providing an official Persian translation of the text. The Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei sees the JCPOA as nothing but a proposal to be examined, improved, amended or even rejected by “competent authorities.” In other words, he sees the whole thing as the first step, not the culmination of 13 years of negotiations…. READ MORE