Why are you leaving? An episode in U.S.-Iranian relation

When Rouhani Met Ollie North … and strung the White House along to get more weapons - Shane Harris, Foreign Policy:

The Americans and the Iranians bonded most strongly over their mutual foe, the Soviet Union. Although the USSR had formally recognized Iran's revolutionary government in 1979, the relationship turned toxic when the Soviets began supplying arms to Iran's archenemy, Iraq. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had also judged the communist regime incompatible with Islam. ...

Rouhani [Hasan Rouhani, then a 37-year-old senior foreign affairs advisor in the Iranian government, and his country's current president] was glad to have ... tactical information about Soviet forces. And he was eager to get more U.S. weapons to counter the military threat to his country. He indicated that "mujahideen" fighters training in Iran were already attacking Soviet forces in Afghanistan. ...

But it had become clear that both sides were talking past each other . ...

"You are not keeping the agreement," McFarlane [Reagan's former national security advisor, Robert "Bud" McFarlane] said. "We are leaving."

The Americans headed for the [Tehran] airport. As they boarded their plane, an Iranian official pleaded with them, "Why are you leaving?"

Via LJB; image from article