Politically it's just not possible to appear to lose to the West and simply allow everything to be investigated without getting something in return.
The thing is in totalitarian regimes, such as Iran, public opinion is often formed by the propaganda coming from mass media - which is government controlled. The belief that the nuclear program is a question of honor and so it is more important that the well-being of the Iranian people was likely incessantly repeated in the mass media, taught in schools from age 0 etc. So this has been the policy of the supreme leader all along, for many years.
That said, If one day he decided that his goal is a peaceful nuclear program, I have no doubt it would be possible to find a way to frame any deal in a way that won't look like a defeat, especially that the mass media is government controlled. People in Egypt still believe that they won the 1973 war against Israel.
Seeing how much the sanctions hurt Iran, I can't believe they have endured all this if their nuclear program is a peaceful one. |