Former Carter aide Gary Sick, who has never failed to find hope and sincerity in any Iranian government (*), said on National Public Radio on October 18, “Now, if they renege on this, if they back away from it, then we find out what they really mean to do.”

Okay, Gary. They’ve reneged on the deal. Could it be that “What they really mean to do” is to achieve nuclear-weapons capability? Is there any metric, short of testing a nuclear weapon, which will dissuade you of your belief that the Iranian negotiators are sincere? Or do you want to start backpedalling now?

(*) For amusing reading, see Mr. Sick’s repeated comments in the late 1980s talking about how Rafsanjani’s president would moderate Iran’s behavior and give the Islamic Republic a new direction. Of course, this was right before Rafsanjani personally ordered assassination squads to liquidate dissidents and blow up such tjings at the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Oh yeah, Rafsanjani was also the father of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. But none of that was what they really meant to do.