Never in the lifetime of its current leaders — nor perhaps even in the lifetime of the next — will the U.S. government become a benevolent force. However, Iran should still be able to negotiate with it. And it must be clear-eyed.
Who expects the United States to change?! I have heard people say, or at least imply, that because it has been four years since he was last president, Donald Trump is a changed man. The 78-year-old presides over a government that uses the tentacles of its military across the world, including to assassinate foreign military officials, and that arm-twists other countries by using its economic and financial power. No U.S. president will shy away from doing any of those things. Least of all Trump.
One can’t expect U.S. leaders to suddenly become righteous people and stop exploiting the power of the United States. One can’t expect the U.S. to stop being what it is.
It is naïve and dangerous to think that any U.S. president could have the interests of another nation in mind, or that they would refrain from doing what they could in the naked pursuit of their country’s perceived interests, often to the detriment of other countries.
The United States is not a force for good, and it never will be.
*
Countries pick and choose their friends and their adversaries. And they choose how to treat them. The Islamic Republic of Iran has chosen to treat America the way it has to be treated. Iran has resisted America. Where and when necessary, Iran has helped independent nations resist America. Iran has thwarted diplomatic, economic, political, and military plans of the United States. It has carried out strikes on U.S. military bases. It has shot down U.S. drones. It has withstood the full power of the United States’ economic and financial force. And it has negotiated with the United States.
Iran sees America for what it is.
On Tuesday, January 28, Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that one shouldn’t fall for the diplomatic niceties of the Americans. “Behind the diplomatic smiles,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, “are their evil nature, enmities, and grudges.”
Iran doesn’t see America “as an opportunity” in the area of foreign policy. It sees the U.S. as a “nuisance… that must be removed.” That is to quote Vice-President for Strategic Affairs Javad Zarif, who by the way was the chief negotiator with the United States the last time around, when he negotiated an agreement that had its worst opponents say for years that it was “the worst” deal for them.
That the United States is what it is and that it won’t change doesn’t mean that Iran shouldn’t be able to potentially negotiate with it to advance its own interests. Iran is doing everything else in its power to neutralize American pressure; if diplomacy can also help do that, what should Iran shy away from doing that for? It will be one of many options to remove America’s shadow from Iran’s foreign policy.
And if the Iranian leadership decides the time is right to try diplomacy, no particular political minority in Iran should be allowed to scorn officials for that decision.
Iran sees America for what it is, and does what is best for Iran.
* Hossein Jelveh is the executive editor of IRNA’s English-language service. You can follow him on X @hossein_jelveh. The views expressed in this article are his own.
Your Comment