Bloomberg reported this morning that there is renewed bipartisan momentum in the Senate to increase pressure on Iran, after the Islamic republic on Saturday refused to accept an interim agreement on its nuclear program because the deal didn’t include a Western statement recognizing that Iran has a “right” to enrich uranium under international law. There is no such right, and Tehran’s intransigence even has the UK – which is today also pursuing a restoration of diplomatic relations with Tehran – talking about tougher sanctions.

Iran, for its part, had already been positioning itself to exploit American concessions.

A Wall Street Journal opinion piece last week revealed that top Iranian officials – including Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his chief of staff Mohammad Nahavandian – met in September in New York with Iranian-American businessman Ekram Manafzadeh. The topic was how to get in front of a reduction in U.S. sanctions, and the mood was not pessimistic:

The mullahs have taken notice, and they’re working to translate US policy concessions into gains for Iran’s ailing economy. But how to alleviate the concerns of US business about establishing commercial ties in one of the world’s least-free societies? That’s where Iranian-American businessman EJ Miller, born Ekram Manafzadeh, comes in. He is eager to play the middleman between US business and Iranian officialdom, and he recently founded the Iran America Chamber of Commerce Inc. to do just that…

“As an American organization, the chamber will try to lobby the people who are considering relaxing the sanctions that are hurting 74 million Iranians,” Mr. Manafzadeh says. Trade between “the United States and Iran would benefit those people and the United States.” Mr. Manafzadeh says the idea for the chamber was hatched during a September meeting in New York City with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and his chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, who were visiting for the United Nations General Assembly.

It is, in any case, not clear that Iran is ready to forgo anti-American hostility. The Hill last week described the Obama administration as having “played down” a recent anti-America rally in Iran – the largest in years – in which U.S. flags were burned and the crowds chanted “Death to America.”

Observers had suggested that the evidence of Iranian hostility might give pause to advocates of engagement.

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