How Iran Became the Middle East's Moderate Force

Mansour Salsabili, Associate with the International Security and Managing the Atom Programs at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, writes in The National Interest that Iran has moved away from its original revisionist roots, and its current foreign policy in fact speaks to its moderation as a regional power. He points to several examples in Iranian behavior, including the professional relations between Iranian and U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, the condemnation of the Charlie Hebdo shootings by Iranian President Rouhani, and support for the campaign against the Taliban in 2001, as demonstrating Iran's more moderate foreign policy, and argues that the continued growth in influence for young, urbanized and generally tolerant Iranians will further impact the country's posture, making a nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 a beneficial one for maintaining peace in the region while supporting domestic reform in Iran.