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Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/10/08/advantage_iran_nuclear_negotiations
The Rouhani Phenomenon
(Foreign Policy) Aaron David Miller and Mitchel Hochberg - The emergence of Rouhani is the perfect play against the U.S., because his election as president really does reflect reformist tendencies within the Iranian public and polity. Sanctions are ruining the economy and hold the potential to create serious popular discontent. Why not send abroad a smiling, attractive, and forthcoming president who can tone down the anti-Israeli rhetoric, accept the Holocaust, and deny Iran has a nuclear weapons program, even while Tehran continues to pursue said program? The Iranian leadership can lie, dissemble, and pursue this two-track strategy without blinking an eye and without fear of any domestic backlash, all in an effort to see what kind of sanctions relief it can achieve and what it has to pay for it. If the price isn't right, it can recalibrate and effortlessly return to the hard-line rhetoric of Rouhani's predecessor.