RUTHFULLY YOURS

As the United States continues negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, if it does not already have them, it has become clear that the Islamic Republic’s regime is not pursuing these talks in good faith.

Far from viewing negotiations as a means toward a peaceful resolution, the Iranian regime appears to see them as a tool that has proven successful before, not only for itself but also for its authoritarian ally, North Korea.

Iran appears to be using diplomacy to stall, deceive and advance its nuclear capabilities behind closed doors, while securing financial and geopolitical concessions from the West.

The disturbing part is not that Iran’s mullahs are following their usual tactics. The horror is that American officials and Western leaders appear to be falling for this shell-game all over again.

To understand how dangerously naïve the apparent US approach is, one only needs to revisit the trajectory of North Korea’s nuclear program. In the early 1980s, North Korea under Kim Il Sung began developing nuclear technology under the pretense — of course — of producing only peaceful civilian nuclear energy. The international community — credulous hopeful and thrilled to avoid confrontation — pursued negotiations. The result was the 1994 “Agreed Framework” under President Bill Clinton, in which North Korea agreed to freeze its plutonium weapons program in exchange for aid, oil shipments and help with building light-water nuclear reactors.

U.S. officials celebrated it as a diplomatic victory. As the West congratulated itself, North Korea quietly advanced its nuclear weapons program to the goal line. By the time Washington discovered the deception, North Korea had successfully negotiated enough time to become a nuclear-armed state.

In 2006, North Korea shocked the world by conducting its first successful nuclear detonation. Today, North Korea possesses dozens of nuclear warheads and a large stockpile of ballistic missiles, including ICBMs capable of hitting cities in the continental United States. This is the true legacy of negotiating with tyrannical regimes.

The problem with enriching hostile regimes to “buy quiet” is that this is the money they use to build nuclear weapons with which to attack us.

With Iran, the parallel is pronounced. Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program was first publicly exposed in 2002 by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a dissident group that revealed the existence of secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Arak. This revelation set off more than two decades of international efforts — diplomatic pressure, United Nations sanctions, and multiple rounds of talks, talks, talks — aimed at halting the regime’s nuclear plans. Western governments, doggedly convinced they can negotiate their way to security, repeatedly return to the table.

Under President Barack Obama, the United States proudly spearheaded the disastrous 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which, according to the Obama administration, would “prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” in exchange for sanctions relief. Unfortunately, the deal included a sunset clause “loophole”: In just a few years — which would have ended this October — Iran would have legitimately been able to have as many nuclear weapons as it could acquire, along with the missiles to deliver them.

The administration heralded the deal as a historic breakthrough, but the facts – including the sunset clause provision — tell a different story.

Meanwhile, Iran’s leaders pocketed billions in sanctions relief, which they funneled into their military, their regional proxies, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After reaping the benefits, Iran ramped up uranium enrichment to 60%, expelled international inspectors, and threatened to go beyond every previous red line. Just last week, satellite surveillance discovered yet another secret nuclear site in Iran.

An additional problem, unfortunately, is that the Iranian regime has a well-documented history of lying (here, here, here and here).

Two and a half decades have passed since the world first discovered Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, and where are we? Iran is closer than ever to developing a nuclear bomb, if it has not done so already. According to recent reports, Iran possesses enough highly enriched uranium to build at least six nuclear weapons in a matter of weeks. Iran has developed advanced centrifuges, hardened its underground facilities, and honed its ballistic missile program. In other words, Iran’s strategy has been working: feign interest in diplomacy, delay enforcement, outmaneuver weak foreign leaders, and emerge as a nuclear-armed state.

Despite this damning record, Western leaders continue to pretend that a new round of talks will yield different results. Even now, Iranian negotiators insist on their “inalienable right” to enrich uranium, and have refused any deal that would fully dismantled the country’s nuclear infrastructure. This response should tell us everything we need to know. No deal that permits any level of enrichment or allows Iran to keep its centrifuges intact will prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Washington nevertheless continues to play this dangerous game, hoping that the mullahs will prefer complete dismantlement to “Plan B.”

There has been not even been a firm timeline. President Donald Trump’s original ultimatum to Iran of “two months” from March 7, 2025, is long gone. This statement, intended to show strength and resolution, is the second ultimatum Trump has blown through since taking office in January 2025. The first was that Hamas had to release all the Israeli hostages it holds in Gaza by a certain date, “or all hell is going to break out.” Well, one hostage was released — the American one — while leaving the other hostages with Hamas, but no hell broke out. That makes strike two. So much for America’s credibility. As the late renowned Middle East historian Bernard Lewis is credited as having said, “America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend.”

Iran’s theocratic regime openly chants “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” It no doubt plans to continue sponsoring terrorism, crushing dissent at home, seeking regional and global hegemony and “death” to both of its Satans. Hoping that such a regime will actually voluntarily disarm is most likely based on assumptions that are wobbly at best.

What makes the current situation even more exasperating is that despite decades of talks, deals and diplomatic theater with North Korea, Russia, China and Iran, we have watched them exploit Western weakness and lack of resolve time and again right under our noses. Yet, like Charlie Brown and the football, the West insists on accepting the same failed, bogus guarantees. We do not need another Swiss-cheese agreement filled with loopholes. We do not need photo-ops and press conferences proclaiming bogus triumphs. America needs a serious, uncompromising strategy that actually eliminates Iran’s nuclear capabilities —permanently and completely: no centrifuges, no missiles, no uranium enrichment.

We are trying to “deal” with theocrats who believe it is their divine duty to destroy Israel and America, and take over the oil-rich states in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s mullahs have played us long enough. The U.S. and the international community need to stop letting hostile, savage regimes upend global security – now and for good.

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