Before entering into negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran there’s a lesson that the Trump administration needs to consider. A lesson that has not been learned by each American administration after administration, up to and including the present day. The lesson is that negotiating with Iran is futile. The Iranians simply do not abide by any agreement that they may enter into as part of any ‘negotiation’. It is always a one-sided deal, with Iran doing as they please.
One must remember that the Iranian regime is made up of very radical ‘Twelver’ Shia Islamists who believe that they are on a mission from God. Throughout world history there have been individuals, and entire nations who have believed that they were on a mission from God. Not one of them were willing to give up their ‘holy work’ on the basis of some pact or agreement with man. The current Iranian leadership is no different.
When ‘negotiating’ with radical Islamists there is no ‘give and take,’ there is only ‘take’ on the part of the radical regimes. Oh they will sign any document that is produced, and they will agree to abide by the conditions laid out in that document, while they work quietly and diligently behind the scenes continuing to pursue their own goals. They view any such negotiation as nothing more than an opportunity to buy them time, allowing them to continue their pursuits. Any agreement with the ‘Infidels’ has no value to them, and they do not feel obligated to abide by it.
Twelver Shi'as, which makes up the Iranian leadership, believe that Twelve Imams were divinely appointed as both spiritual and political successors to the prophet Muhammad, and that they possess special knowledge and authority to guide the Muslim community.
The Iranian regime hold the belief that the last Imam, Imam al-Mahdi, will reappear as "the awaited Mahdi". Basically their equivalent to the ‘Messiah’ in Christianity. He supposedly has been wandering the desert for six hundred years, awaiting for the signal to return.
One other belief that the Iranian mullahs have is that some cataclysmic event will hasten the return of the Twelfth Imam, and once he returns Shia Islam will spread around the world. In other words, perhaps lighting off a nuclear device - certainly a cataclysmic event - may indeed bring about the return of their revered Imam. That belief guides everything the Iranian regime does.
With this in mind, the short and simple answer for dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran is regime change. Nothing less will work. The Iranian regime will engage in ‘negotiations’ while they continue to spread and support terrorism around the world, including inside the United States. For what other reason does the Iranian proxy Hezbollah, a designated international terrorist group, maintain a large presence in the Western Hemisphere, so far away from the Middle East and their Iranian benefactors?
They will also continue their pursuit of nuclear weapons, which they fully intend to use against Israel, the Little Satan, and perhaps even the United States, the Great Satan, if they are able to fully develop a nuclear weapons program. Certainly they would keep their fingerprints off of any nuclear detonation, providing any nuclear device to a third party proxy and have them do the dirty work. They will also use their nuclear weapons capability to threaten and even subjugate their Middle Eastern neighbors, furthering the spread of their power and influence throughout that important region of the world.
Another thing in the favor of regime change in Iran is the fact that the population of the country is young and hungry for change. The Iran-Iraq War created a generation gap when at the time the cream of Iranian youth were killed by the bushel in the war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
The younger Iranian population now has been exposed to Western influence and bristles under the strict Islamic rule of the Iranian Mullahs. They are desirous for change, and all it will take is the right spark and the unpopular Iranian regime will collapse. A spark which happened under the administration of Barack Obama, but was ignored and not exploited.
The Trump administration needs to look towards regime change as the solution to the Iranian problem. It is important to recognize that any ‘negotiation’ with Iran would be pointless since the Iranian regime will never give up their nuclear ambitions under the existing leadership. Regime change is the only answer.