Iran: At the Crossroads

Abstract

When President Obama gave a presidential statement on diplomatic relationswith Iran on the 17thof January, 2016, he was prideful enough for achieving acrucial goal for the US interests. In his speech, he talked about threecomponents of this achievement: prevention of Iran from obtaining a nuclearweapon, saving Iranian Americans from unjust detainment in Iran, andresolving the three-decade-longfinancial crisis between two countries. Such ademocratic optimism was stemmed from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) signed last year between Iran and P5 + 1 (US, UK, France, Chinaand Russia). However, almost two years after the deal, today, the level ofscepticism about the future of US-Iranian relations and of Iran’s place in worldpolitics is high.