The opacity of Iran’s domestic politics has led too many policymakers and pundits to jump to the erroneous conclusion that a standoff between President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is at the root of the current impasse in the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 nations (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States plus Germany). According to this line of thinking, Rouhani is keen for a nuclear deal, but is hamstrung by the supreme leader. Meanwhile, Khamenei is supposedly resisting compromise because he fears improved relations with the West more than sanctions and isolation, and because he believes Washington needs the deal more than Tehran does.

In fact, there is no evidence that the Iranian president’s criteria for a good deal are much different from the supreme leader’s. Delivering on his promise to resuscitate Iran’s economy will be nearly impossible without significant sanctions relief, which itself is impossible without a nuclear accord. That is why Rouhani probably agrees with Khamenei that “no deal is better than a bad deal,” since delayed sanctions relief offered by the latter would produce minimal economic reprieve.

Rouhani has consistently set the bar high. As soon as he was elected president, he announced that “greater transparency,” not restraints on enrichment activities, should allay the West’s concerns. Months before Khamenei publicly made eventual industrial-scale enrichment a red-lined Iranian goal, Rouhani had vowed that Iran “would not dismantle even one centrifuge.”

Rouhani's position stems from his prior bitter experience as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, from 2003 to 2005. The international incentives he was promised in return for concrete concessions never materialized. Rouhani endured harsh criticism at home as a result and is therefore reluctant to sign another agreement that rolls back Iran’s enrichment program but defers the lifting of sanctions. Instead, he seeks a deal with parallel and proportional quid pro quos, including the termination, not just suspension, of sanctions.