Iran's Mullah's Do Not Take Obama Seriously

Is there any evidence that they should?

“They’re not afraid of us and it is because they do not take seriously the likelihood of an American attack,” Abrams said. “It really is a strong tribute to the fact that we have left them unafraid of us.”

Continued negotiations and the removal of sanctions won’t “move” Iran to a more desirable place, Abrams added.

Michael Eisenstadt, a retired Army reservist who served in the Pentagon and at U.S. Central Command in the early days of the Afghanistan war, noted that Iran has long laughed at American military threats.

“They’ve been saying for a long time they don’t take seriously these threats,” said Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The Iranians want to show they won’t be cowed” by Western sanctions and threats.