In a development that surprises absolutely nobody who has been paying attention for the last three decades, Iran apparently picked up the phone and called the United States looking for a deal. Trump confirmed it himself, and as USA Journal reported, the regime that has spent decades funding proxy wars, creeping toward nuclear capability, and generally being the worst neighbor in the Middle East is now reportedly in the mood to chat. The reason? American military strikes apparently did what decades of sternly worded letters from the United Nations could not.
Trump, to his credit, is not exactly rushing to pick up a pen. He said: "I just don't know if they're worthy of making a deal. I don't know that they're going to honor the deal. That's the problem." Which is the geopolitical equivalent of reading someone's text, putting the phone down, and going back to your sandwich. And honestly, the skepticism is warranted given the track record here.
The cycle is practically a tradition at this point. Iran does something provocative. America retaliates. Iran takes a beating. Iran calls for talks. America sits down at the table feeling generous. Iran uses the pause to restock, regroup, and start the whole circus over again. It is less a foreign policy dynamic and more of a subscription service that nobody remembers signing up for.
The most recent round of negotiations reportedly went about as well as you would expect. Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, then allegedly began restricting passage to IRGC approved vessels on IRGC designated routes. They agreed to halt hostilities, but Hezbollah reportedly kept launching attacks into northern Israel anyway. Follow up talks in Switzerland collapsed when Iranian officials allegedly disrespected the American negotiating team and acted like they held the upper hand. Which they kind of did, because sitting down at the table was apparently the concession they needed.
There is an old saying that Iran has never won a war but has never lost a negotiation. That is a brutal record when you think about it, and it exists because every time the military pressure starts working, somebody decides diplomacy sounds nicer.
Trump said Iran has "very little left." If that is accurate, and that is a big if that should be verified by military commanders rather than accepted from Iranian foreign ministers trying to buy time, then the logic of rushing to make a deal gets pretty thin. You do not hand someone a life raft when they are about to reach the consequences of their own decisions.
The bottom line is pretty simple. When a regime that has spent four decades exporting chaos and instability finally calls because the pressure is too much, the worst thing you can do is relieve that pressure in exchange for promises they have broken before. Sometimes the best diplomacy is just not answering the phone.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
