According to the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, published March 12, Iran’s nuclear capability is a reality. Iran has the capability to make nuclear weapons and doing so is a matter of political will. The report also says that the Iranian government is a rational actor: “We judge Iran’s nuclear decision-making is guided by a cost-benefit approach …”

What the United States needs to understand, however, is that the Iranian leaders follow religious rationality rather than a secular rationality.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons and has called its use a crime against humanity. But the discourse of the international community is secular and thus American analysts and strategists have attempted try to understand Iran’s decision making and behavior through a secular cost-benefit analysis.

Religious rationality is different from a secular rationality. And establishing a dialogue between the two discourses is not easy but it is possible. Most of the opposition toward Iran’s nuclear program stems from conservative sections of Western societies that are more religious and familiar with religious discourses and commitments. However, secularization of religion is something that has also happened in the West. Therefore, it is possible to secularize a religious fatwa within the framework of domestic laws and binding international agreements.