(1) I have a different take on the answer from @ThomasWictor although I agree with his dim view of Obama and his team.
(2) Obama made the decision to strategically realign the US with Iran. That decision occurred early on. He could only justify it in the context of a nuclear deal.
(3) Obama saw Iran and its proxies as much more powerful and united than America’s traditional Sunni Arab allies.
(4) Once Obama decided on strategic realignment as a policy, the nuclear deal became “any deal is better than no deal” instead of “no deal is better than a bad deal,” which is what he claimed.
(5) Having sold out completely for the deal, Obama's goal actually was to boost Iran specifically for the reasons @ThomasWictor mentioned. This newly embraced and enriched Iran, helped by the US, would become more moderate. That's what Team Obama believed.
(6) In this sense, Obama DID think of the future and boosting Iran was part of the plan. It was because of many reasons Thomas sited, but he executed his plan expertly with his band of idiots.
(7) The problem is the plan was based on idiot assumptions and was dead wrong. But make no mistake, the entire US foreign policy establishment became devoted to maintaining the IranDeal based on the naive notion that the regime would moderate if the US embraced and enhanced it.
