The recent news on Iran is not too bad. Tehran has agreed with the European Union to continue its suspension of uranium enrichment activity that western capitals believe is aimed at eventually manufacturing a nuclear bomb, and the US has responded by lifting its veto on Iran negotiating accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Furthermore, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's top theocrat, intervened to reinstate two reformist candidates in next month's presidential elections after they had been weeded out by the clerical establishment.