Immoderate Rohani

Iran has a new president and the winner is being universally described as a “moderate.” Hassan Rohani may be less obviously extreme in his immoderation than his rivals.  But he is not a man with whom we can do business.

For starters, Rohani couldn’t have been on the ballot without the approval of the clerics who actually run Iran.  They are cunning enough to have calculated that he will be completely loyal to the Supreme Leader’s malevolent policies at home and abroad, yet able to induce the West to ease sanctions or otherwise eliminate the remaining impediments to Tehran’s now-nearly-complete nuclear weapons program.

If the United States and other Western powers fall for the mullahs’ gambit, we will not only confront in short order a nuclear Iran.  We will have enabled it.