Zakaria: Big Fuss Over a Small Iran Deal

Critics of the agreement with the rogue state worry it may be the start of a beautiful friendship. It isn't

By Fareed Zakaria Monday, Dec. 09, 2013
    • Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Images

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    Iran's foes should relax. This is an important agreement, but it is an interim deal on Iran's nuclear program. It is not even a final deal, which will be much harder to achieve. And it is not the dawn of a historic new alliance. Washington remains staunchly opposed to Iran on many issues, from Tehran's antagonism toward Israel to its support for Hizballah to its funding of Iraqi militias. The Islamic Republic, for its part, remains devoted to a certain level of anti-Americanism as a founding principle of its existence. The two countries are still fundamentally at odds.

    In 1972, Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong, spurred by powerful geopolitical forces, made a massive break with the past and ushered in a new era. The Iran deal does not have that feeling to it. It is more like an arms-control treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, in which two wary adversaries are finding some common ground.

    But the fear that even this interim deal arouses shows that many countries in the region have also gotten used to having Iran as a permanent enemy against which they can rail, focusing domestic attention, deepening ideological and sectarian divides and garnering support. Iran has become an organizing device for many in the Middle East.

    Iran's exit from the modern world in 1979 was so dramatic and complete that it's hard for it to find a way back. Perhaps one day it will come in from the cold. For now, however, this is not a seismic shift, just a step. But a step forward.

    TO READ MORE BY FAREED, GO TO time.com/zakaria

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