Successful nuclear deal would be a boon for Iranian moderates

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and an outspoken advocate for improved relations with Tehran, struck a more optimistic note, suggesting that an agreement could be a watershed in internal Iranian affairs.

“I think in many ways this is going to be decisive as to who defines Iran for the coming decades,” he said after flying back to Washington on Wednesday from Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was monitoring the talks. “If there’s a good deal, and sanctions are lifted and it boosts the Iranian economy, it will show that the moderates can actually get something done.”

Mr. Parsi said that Mr. Rouhani, who took office in August 2013, had been given an extended honeymoon by most Iranians, despite economic stress and other problems, because they prefer his style to that of his more bombastic and divisive predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “They lived through eight years of the alternative, and they know they don’t like that,” he said.