When Tyrants Beg for Talks: The Danger of Empowering Iran’s Soul Crushing Murder Factory Once Again

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  Gatestone Institute | February 7, 2026 

Iran’s rulers, now that they are on their knees, apparently want to “talk.” However, any deal offered at this stage — no matter how well-intentioned — would serve only the interest of Iran’s regime — not that of America or the world. Pictured: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Photo by Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia

• The plea from Iran’s regime is clearly a last-ditch effort to hold on to power so the mullahs can keep on torturing, slaughtering and putting out the eyes of their citizens.

• Whenever Iran’s regime feels weak, it discovers “negotiations.” In Shia Islam, you are told that if “Islam” is being threatened, you are to practice dissimulation (taqiyya). For Iran’s mullahs, “talks” have always been a tactic to buy time, reduce pressure, and strengthen their hand.

• When President Barack Obama came to power, Tehran quickly pivoted toward negotiations. The result was a fake deal that rescued the mullahs when they were at their most vulnerable. The deal offered not only “breathing room,” but more than $150 billion, and, after a few years – which would already have ended on October 18, 2025 – as many nuclear weapons legitimately as the regime could have built. This “breathing room” not only led to the Iranian regime’s re-empowerment, but helped to finance its entire war industry, including the nuclear weapons.

• Years of repression, corruption, economic mismanagement, and brutality have created a population that has risen up against the ruling elite again and again, while the US and other ostensible protectors of freedom, such as the UN, looked chastely the other way. The social contract between the Iranian state and its citizens is now sustained only through brutality, terror and fear.

• The principle of “responsibility to protect ” exists precisely to address situations where a regime brutalizes its own population, yet time and again, the United Nations ignores this principle when it comes to Iran. The double standard is beyond obvious: accountability is demanded elsewhere — often wrongly, with a breathtaking lack of justice — but postponed forever where Iran is concerned. It is probably high time for the Trump administration, out of respect for US taxpayers, to slash funding to this corrupt collection of narcissists more than it already has.

• Trump’s sustained economic and military pressure on Iran has, for the first time, put the Iranian regime on the defensive. To throw away such an opportunity would be a mistake of historic magnitude.

• Any deal offered at this stage — no matter how well-intentioned — would serve only the interest of Iran’s regime — not that of America or the world. Even partial legitimacy would strengthen a system built on savagery and terror. If the US administration imagines that Iran would abide by anything it signs on paper – with infidels! – it may no longer deserve to lead the free world.

• If President Donald Trump’s loud military threats are seen by its adversaries as just a bluff, America’s national security is at stake…. Deterrence works only if it is believed.

• There is also a moral dimension. Negotiating with this regime at this time would signal to the Iranian people that their suffering, their protests, their imprisonment, and their tens of thousands of deaths can be brushed aside in the name of diplomatic expediency.

• Iran’s regime has survived for nearly 50 years by lying and deceiving, as advised by taqiyya, to extract concessions. The regime has so far succeeded in conning eight US administrations and the international community, and will no doubt attempt to do so again. Every accommodation handed to this regime will be converted into repression, instability and terror.

• To discard this opportunity now would be a strategic and moral devastation. The path forward is not “negotiation,” it is refusing to empower evil at its worst.

Iran’s rulers, now that they are on their knees, apparently want to “talk.” Iranian officials, including the foreign minister, have signaled openness to negotiating a new nuclear deal — not from “moderation” or a genuine change in behavior. The plea from Iran’s regime is clearly a last-ditch effort to hold on to power so the mullahs can keep on torturing, slaughtering and putting out the eyes of their citizens.

The regime is searching for a way out. This moment, therefore, is not one for misplaced diplomatic optimism that the mullahs are now prepared to stop building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that can reach the United States, or to stop brutalizing innocent Iranians. The regime, which rules by terror, is evidently still hoping to rule the rest of the world by terror, too.

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