Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei walked us right up to the finish line, spat on us, and walked away. Months and months of secret and public talks, letters, back channels, and gestures produced nothing of the sort the president, assorted foreign ministers, pundits, and politicians had been predicting. Instead we are to keep talking, and keep paying the Islamic Republic for the pleasure and privilege. (snip)

Obama has been pursuing a strategic alliance with Iran since 2008, well before his inauguration and even before his election. During the election campaign he quietly dispatched retired Ambassador William Miller to Tehran to inform the mullahs that a new era in Iranian-American relations was about to begin, and the "dialogue" between Washington and Tehran has continued for more than six years. No sensible person doubts Obama's willingness to be generous to the Iranians. (snip)

I don't think they were dragged to the negotiating table by "biting sanctions," even though the sanctions hurt the Iranian people and sensitive parts of the economy. Their nuclear activity has increased as sanctions tightened, and Iranian military activity in Iraq and Syria is mounting. These matter much more to Khamenei than a chicken shortage in the markets.

The only reasonable goal is pursue regime change in Tehran. Enlisting Khameni to fight against ISIS is a fool’s errand. Khameni has his own reasons for fighting ISIS, because he wants to preserve his ally Assad’s regime. ISIS is far less a threat to the United States than the mullahs in Tehran.