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The Iranian "Moderate"
(Washington Post) Charles Krauthammer - The search, now 30 years old, for Iranian "moderates" goes on. The latest sighting is in the form of Hassan Rouhani. Strange resume for a moderate: 35 years of unswervingly loyal service to the Islamic Republic as a close aide to Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei. Rouhani is Khamenei's agent, but with a smile and style. The test of moderation is what you're willing to give. After all, sanctions were not slapped on Iran for amusement. It was to enforce multiple UN Security Council resolutions demanding a halt to uranium enrichment. Yet in his Washington Post op-ed, his UN speech and various interviews, Rouhani gives not an inch on uranium enrichment. Indeed, he has repeatedly denied that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons at all. Or ever has. Such a transparent falsehood - what country swimming in oil would sacrifice its economy just to produce nuclear electricity that advanced countries such as Germany are already abandoning? - is hardly the basis for a successful negotiation. The mullahs are seeking to buy time. On the threshold of going nuclear, they need just a bit more talking, stalling, smiling and stringing along of a gullible West. Rouhani is the man to do exactly that. Detente is difficult with a regime whose favorite refrain, fed to frenzied mass rallies, is "Death to America." Detente is difficult with a regime officially committed, as a matter of both national policy and religious duty, to the eradication of a UN member state, namely Israel.