What do American Republicans and Iranian hardliners have in common?  I know that it is difficult to believe that these two seemingly polar opposite groups have any thing in common. However, while their belief systems are very much at odds, they share one very important trait – they are all hard line conservatives. And we can easily throw Benjamin Netanyahu into that same category.

So the hard line religious zealots and Revolutionary Guards members in Iran in some ways think along the same lines as the Tea Party Republicans in the US House of Representatives. So while it isn’t hard to believe that John Boehner finds Benjamin Netanyahu to be a kindred spirit, I guess it also isn’t difficult to believe that most of the hardliners in Tehran share Boehner’s and Netanyahu’s basic view of the ongoing negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons should fail.

That’s right, the same religious zealots and Revolutionary Guard members who chant “Death to the Great Satan” and want Israel wiped from the face of the earth agree with Netanyahu, Boehner and his clan that there should be no agreement between the negotiating parties. The Iranian hardliners would rather have their country live under crippling sanctions than have it give up its nuclear programs. Like Netanyahu and the Republicans, they are intent in throwing a wrench into the negotiations.

Hopefully saner, more reasonable parties will prevail.   If not, the only alternative is war which will likely cost tens of thousands of lives and devastate the world economy. Surely, if the Iranian government is willing, the high level negotiators from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China – along with Germany are capable of negotiating a deal which will both prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and insure that the agreement is fully verifiable. However, it still remains to be seen whether the hard line conservatives of all stripes who are trying their best to disrupt the negotiations will be successful.

Cajun   3/6/15