Suzanne Maloney
People thought the nuclear deal was a peace dividend, that there would be jobs and increased opportunities for Iranians of all walks of life. That was never realistic... [This is in part due to a] gray zone of semistate enterprises. You have these periodic gambits of privatization that are essentially passing assets of the state off to semistate enterprises or private individuals who’ve left government and enriched themselves... There’s an enormous amount of corruption.
The Middle East and Russia: American attitudes on Trump’s foreign policy
[Trump has] given Iran the moral high ground and that is an exceptionally difficult thing to do given the history and reality of Iran's misdeeds at home and in the region. It's just malpractice on the part of an American president.
The way the Trump administration is moving forward [with its Iran policy] is just so hostile to all aspects of Iran that it’s unlikely to produce any traction with the Iranian people or to encourage divisions within the system.
The intent of [any U.S. action] to do with the IRGC is basically to cast a very broad shadow over sectors of the Iranian economy and exacerbate the compliance nightmare for foreign businesses that may be considering trade and investment with Iran.