I don't wish that any country had nuclear weapons. I don't wish that Iran develop them, nor did I prefer the USSR, France, UK, Israel, Pakistan, India, nor North Korea develop them. But where does this nation get the right to tell another country what they can do? We can say we won't trade with you, we will freeze your currency, we will not allow your citizens in to our country, we will make you miserable in many ways, but under what concept of law does the USA get to tell Iran what it can or cannot do internally? I believe that one of our nation's early answers when the powerful nations across the sea tried to tell us what to do was to declare that not only could these world powers not tell the US what to do but they could not even interfere anywhere in the Western Hemisphere (see Monroe doctrine). So I flip the question.. Do you believe that because we have a legal basis to tell any nation that they cannot go forward? Your fear that Iran will sneak a bomb into the US, which you seem to believe is a certainty, is not a reason that I will accept. By the way, the Iranians were certainly not afraid of Reagan. The Iranians wanted Carter to loose and Reagan to win. This would prove that they could over through a US leader as the US had done with implanting the Shah.

New Reports Say 1980 Reagan Campaign Tried to Delay Hostage Release - NYTimes.com

Reagan later certainly was involved in a hostages for military equipment deal with the Iranians (see Iran Contra). Either Reagan knew or a huge US policy decision specifically prohibited by US law was being made without the knowledge of Reagan.