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Why Iran Says No
(Los Angeles Times) Hussein Banai - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been doubling down on his hard-line message that all but rules out the possibility of direct talks with the U.S. The real source of Khamenei's rejectionist attitude is not the approach of the West toward Iran's nuclear program. After all, he routinely undermined attempts at rapprochement between the Khatami and Clinton administrations at a time when worries about Iran's nuclear program did not exist. Rather, Khamenei is increasingly paranoid about the implications of a "grand bargain" with the U.S. for his privileged position as the chief interpreter of the ideals of the Islamic Republic. Simply put, normalization of relations would deprive Khamenei and the radical ideologues around him of a powerful justification for their arbitrary rule. The writer is an assistant professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College.