31 December 2012
Obama’s reelection has opened up some key questions on the direction of his policy in domestic and foreign domains. Iran is one of the most significant foreign policy issues he has to deal with. What would form his decisions and course of action towards Iran? Answering this question is not an easy task. However three points need to be kept in mind.
First, Obama will encounter a variety of cognitive and practical traps. One trap will be the intellectual misreading of Iran, and being imprisoned in the ossified American perception of Iran. The other is the trap of third parties in the US-Iran relationship which try to radicalize and militarize the regional context, i.e. the right wing in Israel and some among the G.C.C security elites.
Second, Obama may become a game changer provided that he recognizes the legitimate concerns and security interests of Iran and departs from the entrenched prevailing mentality which aims at limiting, containing and even destroying Iran. This conditional turn may serve him a legacy different from the others.
Third, in the Iran-US relationship, Iran is a player and not just an object. This means, all American pronouncements and actions will be interpreted and responded accordingly. In this framework, the regional context is very important.
