Julie Ramzanian, a leading academic on the Iran issue and a professor of Iran Studies at Georgetown University. “The idea of a deal, however, was not enough to break through the impasse that has existed between Tehran and the Western powers since the Ayatollah Khomeini called a halt in nuclear diplomacy back in 2003. And that impasse has lasted for ten more years.”

Now that Iran has emerged with the capability to enrich uranium, Ramzanian estimates, the West and its regional partners are about to decide whether or not to engage Iran militarily in Syria, Iraq, and possibly Iran and Iraq.

“[President Obama has] tried to do a delicate balancing act. On the one hand he wants a nuclear deal, [and] he wants to deal with Iran, but the other option, a military strike, is not entirely out of the question,” he said.

While Ramzanian remains optimistic that the prospects for a nuclear deal are better than the one held last summer, he sees a wide gap ahead between Iran’s intentions and how it will ultimately be implemented.

“The fact that Iran has emerged with these capabilities [as of July 5] puts a big question mark over whether there is actually a chance of a nuclear deal after all… [and] the question then will be what Iran will do with that power,” he emphasized. “So far it appears that it’s looking toward the region as the future.”

But as tensions have risen, such as in Egypt under President Mohamed Morsi and Syria where the US is now engaged in a civil war, Ramzanian says Iran has been quick to shift its focus to the region.

“In the last six months, Iran has become more determined than ever to expand [its] reach to the Middle East. They’re looking inward for reasons. And we can’t say for certain that this is a deliberate move,” he said. “But this is a shift that the United States can’t ignore.”

Iran Is Moving Towards Regional Domination

Given that Iran’s nuclear development program makes possible both a nuclear and ballistic missile program, Ramzanian believes the United States and its allies are right in their assessments — the Iranians are now preparing for regional domination.

“What [US President Obama] didn’t want is to go to war with Iran, but [President Hassan] Rouhani and Iran’s supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei want to