Why Obama Should Meet Iran's President

The flight from Tehran to New York is long, but if hopes were jet engines Iran’s new President, Hassan Rouhani, would be here already. Rouhani, who took office just six weeks ago, is due on Sunday for a week of public appearances and diplomatic footwork, centering on his first appearance before the United Nations General Assembly. For those invested in Iran’s future, the moment is auspicious—and precarious. Rouhani has staked everything on resetting Iran’s foreign policy. That begins with restoring an aura of dignity to the office of the Iranian Presidency, and it ends, from the Iranian point of view, with a nuclear deal that preserves Iran’s core security interests as Rouhani perceives them but also ends its isolation and leaves Western powers with no further justification for crippling the country’s economy with sanctions.