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How Iran Outfoxes the U.S.

(CNN) Aaron David Miller - We're playing checkers on the Middle East game board and Tehran's playing three-dimensional chess. Iran is about to try U.S. citizen and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and we have made a judgment that even while we protest, we will keep the nuclear issue separated not just from this case but from Iran's serial abuse of human rights, including the behavior of its Shia militias in Iraq. If we don't have a behind-the-scenes plan to have Iran release him, we're legitimizing a bad regime and compromising U.S. values and interests. It clearly makes sense to try to use diplomacy as a way to constrain Iran's nuclear program, but we should have no illusions. We won't end Tehran's nuclear weapons pretensions, and we will be enabling its rise in the region because of this nuclear diplomacy, not constraining it. As the Russians have made clear in their recent S-300 deal, the nuclear negotiations are only making Iran a more acceptable business partner. Sanctions relief will make the mullahs more secure and give them the resources to buck up, not tamp down, their regional aspirations. The writer is a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2015-04-22 00:00:00
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