Don’t You Try To Fake Me Out

Let’s say you’re a high-ranking figure in the Iranian religious-political establishment.

For 30 years, you’ve used U.S. bellicosity as an excuse for social repression. "How can we relax restrictions on organizing and demonstrating? After all, the Great Satan schemes to destroy Iran!" is your battle cry against student activists and trade unions. To an international audience, you insist baroquely that the U.S. won’t take reasonable steps for discussion on issues of mutual concern.

But then all of a sudden, the U.S. elects a president who says he wants to negotiate without preconditions during his first year in office. You’re in a pretty serious bind now, aren’t you? So you start giving quotes like this one, picked up by the Washington Post: