Nuclear deal spurs prospect for better U.S.-Iran relations

The nuclear deal between world powers and Iran offers the prospect that the United States and the Islamic Republic may embark on a new, less hostile relationship after 36 years of open enmity.

Tuesday's landmark accord, which will lift U.S. and international sanctions on Iran in return for its nuclear restraint, will provide Iran with increased trade and the opportunity to integrate its economy and culture more fully with the rest of the world.

In Tehran, thousands of people flooded city streets to celebrate the deal amid hopes for more contact with the West, which many crave.

The agreement marks the first time the two countries have engaged in direct and open diplomacy in more than a generation. And it puts to rest for now a threat by President Obama to resort to force if necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, something Iran always has denied seeking.

The deal could alter a recent history of conflict and lead the two nations toward a more cooperative relationship, both Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.

Obama noted that Iran "has been a sworn adversary of the United States for over 35 years." He urged the Iranian people and their leaders to move away from violence, rigid ideology and threats to eradicate Israel.

"A different path, one of tolerance and peaceful resolution of conflict, leads to more integration into the global economy, more engagement with the international community, and the ability of the Iranian people to prosper and thrive," Obama said. "This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction. We should seize it."

Rouhani said the agreement begins "a new chapter" in Iran's relations with the world community. If the deal is carried out, "we can gradually eliminate distrust," he said in Tehran.

It was, ironically, the United States that helped Iran build its first nuclear reactor when the country was ruled by the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who came to power in a CIA-backed coup in 1953, and whose ruthless U.S.-backed reign planted the seeds for the current regime's vehement anti-American posture.

Many Americans' first memories of Iran stem from the 444-day Iran hostage crisis, which began during the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the shah. Students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which they and the revolution's leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, referred to as the American "den of spies."

The two countries almost went to war again in 1983, when Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 305 people, including 241 U.S. military personnel. Hostilities flared again in 1988, when the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down a civilian Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War, killing 290 passengers.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, in a July video posted on YouTube, said his country is ready to "open new horizons to address common challenges" with the West. He spoke of the common need to confront violent extremism "embodied by the hooded men who are ravaging the cradle of civilization," referring to the Islamic State, an enemy of both Iran and the U.S. He invited Western nations to "extend their resources to this common battle."

Yet hard-liners in both Washington and Tehran continue to warn of the dangers of working with the other. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Sunday that to avoid a standoff with the United States, Iran would not only have to abandon its quest for a nuclear weapon, but also stop sponsoring terrorism around the world. Otherwise, the nuclear deal will wind up "legitimizing this rogue regime," Boehner told CNN.

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regularly warns that opposition to the United States is a precept of the Iranian revolution. Proof of that came just last week at government-organized rallies in Tehran, where demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags and chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Khamenei told students in Tehran on Saturday that the United States is "the ultimate embodiment of arrogance" and Iran's enmity toward it will continue. "Get ready to continue combating the arrogant power," he said.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement last week that the destruction of U.S.-ally Israel is a top priority of the Muslim world.

Michael Singh, managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says Iran's support for terrorist groups throughout the Middle East has been consistent for decades, and "there's no reason to expect they'll change" because of a nuclear agreement.

Iran's aggressive behavior could even spike because the deal will provide more access to cash to support proxies in the region, and Khamenei may seek to placate hard-liners unhappy with a nuclear deal by giving them free rein to continue supporting terrorist groups, Singh said.

"When Zarif talks about cooperation against terrorism, he has no control," Singh said, because military matters are the bailiwick of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, whose commander reports directly to Khamenei.

The different messages coming from Iran reflect pragmatic and radical factions vying for influence, says Abbas Milani, co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at Stanford University.

Radicals like Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards have increased their power in Iran under crippling Western sanctions as they expanded the nuclear program and Iran's military operations abroad. Like the rest of the nation, they also seek economic benefits from a nuclear deal, so their tough talk is mainly for show, Milani said.

"They continue their rhetoric, while behind the scenes they appear to be willing to make some concessions," he said. "Without Khamenei's green light, (Iran's negotiators) wouldn't be willing to make these concessions."

Reformers, led by Zarif, Rouhani and Iran's former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, seek normalized relations with the West. Rafsanjani last week told The Guardian newspaper that now even the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is "not impossible."

The deal itself will offer plenty of opportunities to improve relations, said Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The agreement will require U.S. and Iranian diplomats to continue talking to each other as the deal is implemented and monitored, opening up numerous opportunities for consultation and coordination on other issues, he said.

"We shouldn't forget, they didn't talk hardly at all before," Pillar said.

Open diplomacy between Iran and the USA will make it easier to bring Iran on board to find a political solution in the fighting in Syria and Iraq, Pillar said. With a nuclear deal done, "it makes it somewhat politically easier for the Obama administration to say we expect the Iranians at the table," he said.

Many in Washington disagree. Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator at the State Department, says the deal is unlikely to change much between the USA and Iran anytime soon.

The realities of each country's perceived interests and domestic politics "will prevent a quick and easy transformation in the relationship," Miller said.

Authoritative regimes do not like to give up control, he said, citing examples like China, Vietnam, Cuba and Russia, which are capable of opening up economically without loosening the reins of power.

"As long as Iran remains a repressive society with regional aspirations, there's going to be serious problems," Miller said.