A lengthy report by political scientist William deB. Mills for the analytical group Foreign Policy in Focus noted that Iran poses no explicit threat to the U.S. mainland, suggesting Washington may hold currently the soft solutions to handle the Iranian regime.

Mills noted that pursuing status quo policies concerning Tehran not only fuels historic acrimony but also feeds on issues that both sides deem harmful to bilateral ties, notably the American presence in Iraq and Iranian proxies in Hezbollah and Hamas.