Iran’s cryptic hard-liners are once again on the minds of US policymakers. Suspicion has most recently fallen on these nameless individuals following last week’s arrest of a number of American journalists in Tehran. The arrests, which came two days after negotiators in Vienna agreed to extend the nuclear talks with the UN Security Council, are being interpreted as a deliberate attempt to undermine President Hassan Rouhani’s overture to the United States. Responding in her congressional testimony on July 29, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman warned hawkish senators not to act in a way that might further push the hard-liners in Tehran “to the wall.”

American skeptics

Tehran and Washington have both expressed optimism that the next round of nuclear talks, to be completed by Nov. 24, might just be conclusive — if, that is, a give-and-take bargain acceptable to both sides can be reached. But as Sherman pointed out, not all American observers or policymakers in the US Congress share that view.

Some seem gripped by a perennial fear that the much-trumpeted hawks in Tehran will derail the diplomatic process. Months before the July arrests, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., cautioned that Washington should not put too much hope in moderates like Rouhani and Javad Zarif, his smooth foreign minister.