After all the saber-rattling, all the threats and boasting and screams of “Death to America,” as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier nears the Islamic Republic of Iran, now suddenly the mullahs want to talk. Well, will wonders never cease.
Fox News reported Monday that, according to President Donald Trump, Iran “appears to be looking to negotiate with the U.S. amid a growing military buildup in the Middle East.” Trump said, “They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.”
Talking, however, is one thing, and actually coming to an agreement is quite another. Trump doesn’t appear inclined to offer the mullahs an Obamaesque sweetheart deal, or send them billions, as did Old Joe Biden’s handlers. Instead, “any potential agreement would need Tehran to remove all enriched uranium, cap its long-range missile stockpile, a change in support for regional proxy forces, and cease independent uranium enrichment, terms Iranian leaders have not agreed to.” Nor are they likely to do so.
However, their backs are against the wall, and that can make the impossible suddenly seem readily attainable. Trump observed that the situation was “in flux,” and noted that there was now “a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela.” Was Trump suggesting that Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could go the way of Nicolás Maduro? Stranger things have happened. And so, eyeing that aircraft carrier, the mullahs are contacting Trump and wanting to talk.
Is it worth doing so? Unlikely. For there to be the possibility of any lasting peace in the region, the Islamic Republic will have to fall. Otherwise, its rulers are going to continue to scream “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and in light of that, any cap on their long-range missile stockpile is just a detail; it’s not going to stop them from working toward that goal in all manner of ways.
In a nationally televised address in November 2023, Khamenei explained, “The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy. I have stated the reasons previously. For many years, from the 1940s to the 1970s – that is 30 years – the Americans did everything they could do against the Iranian nation. They hit Iran in any way they could – financially, economically, politically, scientifically, and morally.” And now the Islamic Republic is determined to hit us back, one way or another, in any way that the opportunity arises to do so.
If Khamenei and his minions make a deal with Trump, it also must be remembered that it won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. As The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran explains, the Islamic concept of taqiyya, lying to deceive one’s enemies, is a particularly Shi’ite concept, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is a Shi’ite nation.
The doctrine of taqiyya was formulated during the time of the sixth Shi’ite Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq, in the middle of the eighth century, when the Shi’ites were being persecuted by the Sunni caliph al-Mansur. Taqiyya allowed Shi’ites to pretend to be Sunnis in order to protect themselves from Sunnis who were killing Shi’ites.
Related: What on Earth Could the Iranian Regime Be Thinking?
This was necessary. Sunnis, in the majority almost everywhere, would not infrequently take it upon themselves to cleanse the land of those whom they referred to as Rafidites, or rejecters: those who rejected the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, the first three successors of Muhammad, all of whom were chosen over the man Shia believe Muhammad chose for the job, Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Until the conversion of Persia to Shi’ism, taqiyya was an important element of Shi’ite survival.
Faced with a threat of similar magnitude today, the Islamic Republic is likely to have recourse to the strategies that Shia have employed throughout history. After all, the implementation of Shi’ite Islam is the regime’s entire reason for being. That means, quite simply, that whatever agreement the mullahs would make with Trump would beyond any doubt involve the Islamic Republic lying until the heat is off.
Nowadays, of course, it’s bad form even to consider the possibility that one’s adversary might be attempting to deceive. But is it really so far-fetched, when it’s a cornerstone of the theology that is the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran?
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