Iranian Nuclear Negotiations Looking Like an Exercise in Futility

The ongoing negotiations between Iran and Western countries, including the United States, to come to an agreement whereby Iran limits its nuclear development and allows independent inspections of its facilities, are due to end on July 10, with, at this point of time, little to indicate that the talks, reportedly at a standoff, will succeed before that date.  To me, I'm not quite sure what good any negotiated "deal" will accomplish...Iran's de facto dictator, Ayatollah Khamenei, has been the supreme authority of that country with the power to arbitrarily interpret, validate or reject any laws while being at the same time the commander-in-chief of its armed forces.  And Khamenei, who has ruled that country since 1989, has already flatly stated that he would never allow international inspectors at Iran's military facilities.  So U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, his fellow Western negotiators, and the polite and amiable Iranian negotiators can agree on whatever they want...it doesn't matter...because in the end, only what Ayatollah Khamenei says about it is what Iran's policy will be...

I was around in 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis, when President Carter sought out authoritative Iranian representatives to negotiate the release of the 50+ American hostages being held there...and the then-Ayatollah Khomeini would repeatedly frustrate and contradict any progress that the Iranian-American negotiations were making.  I see nothing different...their current "supreme" leader feels no sense of honor or duty to live by international agreements...instead, he insists on his own exalted authority to change or interpret them as he sees fit.  So the way I see it, these negotiations are an exercise in futility...