It is becoming increasingly clear that despite whatever good intentions US President Barack Obama may have, his attempt at a rapprochement with Iran consists of little more than a series of gestures notable more for their style than substance. Cases in point are the speeches he has given each March to mark Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. Although some view these messages as an olive branch that Iran consistently brushes away, others see them simply as a public relations exercise.

Implied in the assessments of Obama’s speeches is that Iran’s leaders are among his target audience. Keeping this in mind, his message this year was couched in the assertion that Iran’s leaders are the real root of the problem between Iran and the West concerning Tehran's nuclear program. At the same time, he spoke to the Iranian people in seeking to justify continued sanctions, which have failed to halt Iran’s nuclear program, but have caused the price of fish, a staple of Nowruz celebrations, to soar.

Obama's message indicated that he remains uncertain about his audience. If the target is the Iranian people, he demonstrates a lack of awareness of how sanctions are being felt and interpreted. If it is the Iranian leadership, then attributing the current sanctions to their “unwillingness” to alleviate Western concerns, the most recent message is one step forward and two steps back.

The reality is that in the eyes of most Iranians, the sanctions for which they bear the brunt every day resemble something out of Kafka’s The Trial. Iran has been under sanctions since the 1979 revolution. As a result, the majority of the population today know nothing other than high inflation, trade restrictions and a guarantee of more to come. While, in the United States, administration after administration has been convinced that the sanctions are an effective political instrument, they have become an end in themselves, conveying no particular message. The same can be said of the latest round involving the nuclear issue.