For more than four decades, some policymakers in the United States and the West have clung to the belief that Iran’s regime can be persuaded into cooperation through diplomatic engagement, economic incentives or strategic deals. This persistent delusion has driven various US administrations to pursue negotiations, lift sanctions, shower Iran with cash, and offer it reintegration into the global financial system — all in the hope that such gestures would encourage moderation.
The regime’s record, however, has repeatedly proven the opposite. Regardless of the strategies employed to engage it, Iran’s regime remains intractably hostile to the United States, Israel and the broader Western world.
