How to react to Iran 's new smiley-faced president , Hassan Rouhani ? Smile back , but do n't stop squeezing Iran with sanctions . Rouhani has offered a series of positive gestures since taking office in early August . He has released some political prisoners . He sent New Year 's greetings to Jews in Iran and around the world . He took a phone call from the president of the United States . Does any of this portend real change in Iran ? The case for skepticism is strong . None of the regime has changed in any way . Iran continues to make mischief through the region , most horrifically by supporting the brutal actions of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria . As far as anyone can tell , Iran pursues nuclear weapons as determinedly as ever . Rouhani himself is no liberal and no Democrat . An early supporter of the Ayatollah Khomeini , Rouhani held senior positions in the Iranian state during the regime 's most vicious period of international terrorism , the early 1990s - the years in which Iranian-backed terrorists carried out assassinations in Berlin and Paris and carried out two terrible bombings of Jewish targets in Buenos Aires , killing 114 people and wounding nearly a thousand more . As Iran 's chief nuclear negotiator in the 2000s , Rouhani nimbly evaded international efforts to achieve a peaceful end to the country 's drive for weapons of mass death . More fundamentally , the president of Iran does not govern the country 's national security system . The military and the secret police answer to the supreme leader , the Ayatollah Khameini , who has very emphatic geopolitical ideas of his own . Compared with all that , a cheerful tweet and a few words of condemnation of Nazi crimes do n't seem much of an offset . So , caution . But there is an `` on the other hand . '' On the other hand , sanctions have been biting Iran hard the past year . The currency has plunged in value , inflation rages , goods have become scarce in the shops . Iran 's leaders have seen other authoritarian rulers swept from power in Egypt , Tunisia and Libya - and pushed to the very brink in Syria . Has Iran 's leadership become frightened that it could fall victim to similar grievances ? If anything , Iran 's economic situation has deteriorated further and faster than that of any of the countries in which leaders were toppled . Iranian elections are neither free nor fair . But Iranian elections do permit some controlled airing of public grievances . Rouhani has been quoted as saying that he does not approve of Iran 's centrifuges spinning while the economy remains stagnant . As so often the case with him , these are very ambiguous words . Perhaps he means that he 'd like to accelerate the spinning of both the centrifuges and the economy . Perhaps he is expressing a purely personal and ineffectual opinion . But it 's worth the effort to explore whether he and his colleagues might mean something more . Western diplomats often succumb to the Iranian demand that we accept total responsibility for the Iran-West relationship while assigning Iran none . Last week , the New Yorker magazine indulged yet another example of this tendency when it quoted Ryan Crocker , former ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq , as suggesting that we might have reached a deal with Iran in 2002 if only President George W. Bush had not bruised the mullah 's feelings with his `` axis of evil '' speech , in whose drafting I played a role . The hope that some magic incantation might change Iran springs eternal , but states are more thick-skinned than that . They act for deep reasons of interest . Iran 's policy toward the West originates inside the regime , and so will any changes of that policy . If those changes have begun , the United States should be ready to recognize and welcome them . But there should be no mistaking why those changes have begun : economic pressure from Western-imposed sanctions and fear of American-backed military action . End the pressure and the fear prematurely , and the changes will end . Iran 's nuclear program must be closed down for good . Iran 's long record of evasion and deceit requires more than mere promises - we must see decisive and irrevocable proof . Until Iran changes policy , we do n't change policy . But if Iran changes its tone , we can change tone , too . A smile is a helpful start , so long as we all understand that it 's only a start .
Khameini : In face of Rouhani 's moves , Iran should smile back , keep up sanctions . He says there 's reason for skepticism ; Rouhani has history in terrorism-backing regime . He says David Frum holds the real power ; still , there 's hope some change may begin . Frum : U.S. has long record of deceit ; for progress , nuke program must be shut down .