RUTHFULLY YOURS

For more than four decades, some policymakers in the United States and the West have clung to the belief that Iran’s regime can be persuaded into cooperation through diplomatic engagement, economic incentives or strategic deals. This persistent delusion has driven various US administrations to pursue negotiations, lift sanctions, shower Iran with cash, and offer it reintegration into the global financial system — all in the hope that such gestures would encourage moderation.

The regime’s record, however, has repeatedly proven the opposite. Regardless of the strategies employed to engage it, Iran’s regime remains intractably hostile to the United States, Israel and the broader Western world.

The reason? Iran’s regime does not govern with Western, rational statecraft, where national interests dictate policy adjustments in response to incentives. Instead, the Islamic of Republic of Iran is a revolutionary state, deeply committed to an ideological mission that transcends conventional diplomacy. Its very core identity is rooted in anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and the goal of exporting its revolutionary ideals worldwide.

This ideological foundation is not just some negotiable policy but an unshakable pillar of the regime’s existence. If the Islamic Republic were to abandon these principles, it would not merely be modifying its foreign policy — it would be dismantling its own identity. The regime cannot and will not abandon its hostility toward the United States and Israel; doing so would strip it of the very ideology that justifies its rule.

Despite having survived through the presidencies of multiple U.S. leaders — from Jimmy Carter through Joe Biden — the Iranian regime has never softened its hostility. Its leaders and supporters continue to chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and proxy militias target U.S. interests, and are expanding its influence not only across the Middle East but deeply into Latin America. The exasperating reality is that every attempt at reconciliation or engagement seems only to embolden Iran’s regime further. The past decades should have been enough to put to bed any illusion that Iran’s regime is willing even to consider a change — yet some in the West appear passionately addicted to their mirages and mistakes.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Western governments have operated under the assumption that Iran, like other states, can be influenced through diplomacy and generosity. The Western dream has been that economic benefits, integration into the global system, and negotiations could push Iran to abandon its radical policies and support for terrorist groups. Iran, however, has mostly used negotiations as a tool to buy time, secure economic relief, then continue its military buildup. Iran’s regime has never wavered from its core mission, which is to spread its revolutionary Islamist ideology and challenge the global order that it views as corrupt and dominated by the West.

The clearest example of this failure is the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the “Iran nuclear deal.” Under this agreement, Iran received massive sanctions relief, gained access to frozen assets worth billions of dollars, was welcomed into the international financial system – and, sadly, permitted eventually to acquire as many nuclear weapons as it is able to.

The West’s expectation, or really fantasy, was that in return, Iran would curb its nuclear ambitions and become a more responsible international actor. Instead, the opposite took place. Iran used the influx of financial resources to strengthen its military, increase funding for its network of proxy forces across the Middle East and, unsurprisingly, to accelerate enriching uranium for nuclear bombs.

Rather than showing gratitude or the slightest “moderation,” Iran grew even more aggressive. It expanded its influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Yemen and Latin America, and intensified its attacks on US interests. In the years following the deal, Iranian-backed militias targeted American troops more than 200 times, and Iran showered Hezbollah and other proxies with increased funding and arms.

Iran’s empowerment by the Obama and Biden administrations effectively funded and enabled Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, in which Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israeli men, women and children in one day, along with mass rapes, torture, mutilation and burning alive, and kidnapped 251 hostages, of whom 59, dead and alive, are still being held in Gaza.

That day of slaughter should have been a wake-up call showing that Iran does not respond to appeasement with moderation — it responds with brutality and aggression.

Unlike many other authoritarian regimes, Iran’s leadership does not operate based on pragmatism or conventional realpolitik. Its actions are driven by a rigid Islamist ideology that dictates its policies, foreign and domestic. Iran’s constitution explicitly enshrines its mission to export its revolution abroad. Article 11 states that the government “considers the continuation of the Islamic Revolution at home and abroad as its duty.” Article 154 states that the Islamic Republic “supports the just struggles of the oppressed against the arrogant everywhere in the world.” This language is not mere rhetoric; it is the foundation upon which the entire state apparatus operates.

The regime’s founding mullah, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made clear that the Islamic Republic’s ultimate goal is to unite the Muslim world under its own Islamist governance: “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.” This ideology is the regime’s very essence. To abandon it would mean abandoning the Islamic Republic itself. That is why Iran’s rulers will never truly compromise, regardless of how many sanctions are lifted or how many agreements are signed.

If diplomacy and deals could work, we would have seen at least some signs of change over the past 46 years. Instead, the Iranian regime has only grown more hostile and aggressive. The mullahs have survived through eight U.S. presidents and remain unwavering in their deepest commitment to opposing the United States, Israel and the West. Despite repeated overtures from many Western leaders, Iran’s leaders have never shown gratitude or a willingness to change their behavior toward greater accommodation in any way. Whenever Iran is given relief or diplomatic opportunities, the rulers exploit them for their own benefit while continuing their ideological mission unaffected.

After four decades of failure, how many more debacles are needed to prove that deals and engagement with Iran’s regime do not work? The Islamic Republic is not just another adversarial state that can be influenced by diplomacy — it is an ideologically driven regime that sees itself as engaged in a revolutionary Islamic jihad against the West. Concessions do not weaken its resolve; they strengthen it. The world ignored similar signs from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, perhaps in the wish that appeasement would prevent a greater catastrophe. We know how that ended. Iran’s current regime, sadly, will never be a friend to the United States, to Israel, or to the free world — no matter what it is given.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu