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Testing Iran's Soft-Sell Strategy
(Washington Post) Editorial - Iranian President Rouhani has excited Iran-watchers in the West over the past several weeks with a charm offensive. But there has been no substance - and there is ample reason for skepticism that a reversal of Iran's drive to achieve nuclear weapons capability is in the works. Iran has steadily built its capacity to enrich uranium through a decade of negotiations and escalating sanctions. Rouhani, a longtime and fiercely loyal follower of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has yet to offer any indication of what, if any, deviations the regime may be prepared to make from its previous refusal to limit that activity, accept more intrusive international inspections or answer UN inspectors' questions about suspected work on warheads and missiles. During his election campaign this year, Rouhani boasted that, as the regime's nuclear negotiator a decade ago, he had managed to head off sanctions even as the program moved forward. His pitch to Iranians was that a different approach might win relief from sanctions while preserving Iran's interests. The danger is that, in the fevered atmosphere generated by Rouhani's skillful public diplomacy, the U.S. and its allies will be induced into further, unwarranted concessions - or deluded into believing that a "grand bargain" is possible with Iran. Better to swiftly demand that Rouhani make clear his bottom line - and prick the bubble he has been inflating.