Changes in Iran make a nuclear deal more likely - not this month, perhaps, but eventually. Much that Iran does is wrong. It finances terrorists and militias in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and backs the murderous regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. Its politicians routinely deny Israel s right to exist. They treat opponents at home with cruelty and injustice. However Iran is not a straightforward dictatorship. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has the last word. But his role is to adjudicate between the claims of an elite made up of thousands of politicians, clerics, generals, academics and business people.

Jon Stewart's movie Rosewater tells the story of Maziar Bahari, Iranina Candaian Journalist imprisoned in the aftermath of the 2009 disputed elections. The country's clerical rulers say the protests in the poll's aftermath were an attempt at sedition led by America and Israel. Hundreds of activists remain in jail.