What kind of policy is this insistence on diplomacy with the “savage mullah"? What benefit does it serve?

 What benefit is there in dialogue, negotiation, and diplomacy with a Savage Shi‘a Mullah? For what purpose? So that the Tehran regime might abandon its inherently malignant, aggressive, and destructive nature, cease its crisis-manufacturing behavior, or suddenly change its essence?

A government that is neither legitimate nor lawful, which came to power in 1979 through terrorist operations against Iran’s lawful monarchy, with the help of the Soviet KGB and Islamic and Marxist terrorists, forcibly imposed itself upon Iranian politics. A sinister, meaningless phenomenon, never born of the will or vote of the Iranian people. Over these forty-seven years, it has shamelessly stripped on the stage of international relations, revealing its true nature: a corrupt, mafia-like, repressive, plundering, occupying, and hegemonic regime, fomenting chaos throughout the Middle East.

What kind of policy is this insistence on diplomacy with the “savage mullah"? What benefit does it serve? No one negotiates with terrorists, lest they grant them legitimacy. The current rulers of Iran possess neither popularity nor acceptance, neither credibility nor value, nor any international standing. They are nothing but a despised, isolated regime-a failed state in the true sense of the word-surviving solely through a “machine of repression" and a “machine of propaganda," orbiting within corrupt deals with China, Russia, and North Korea. A country belonging to the “axis of evil," engulfed in total chaos, devoid of law and order. A country that savagely suppresses its people, where no form of freedom exists, and where even the word “freedom" is forbidden in the regime’s lexicon.

Now, with the U.S. military deployment in the Persian Gulf, one may ask: politically and intellectually, does Trump truly believe in regime change? Will he behave like other American presidents after 1979, even if it leads into a complete diplomatic deadlock? Or is he merely seeking a better deal than Obama’s-JCPOA 2? And fundamentally, why should the Shi‘a mullah accept such a deal, and why should he grant Trump this diplomatic victory?

It is possible that Trump understands that the ideological foundation of the Shi‘a mullah is built upon deception, trickery, manipulation, and hostility. Today, a mullah issues a religious fatwa for expediency and personal interest; tomorrow night, another mullah issues a completely opposite fatwa. In essence, the religious decrees of Shi‘a mullahs possess no real value or credibility.

One may hope that Trump will resemble those American presidents who rose to dismantle communism, Nazism, apartheid, and similar systems-and that he, too, will demonstrate in action his resolve to dismantle Islamic terrorism. Trump exerted tremendous effort to destroy the “Islamic Caliphate of ISIS." But what will he do to end the principal Islamic caliphate-the core and central hub of Islamic terrorism in the world? History will later deliver its merciless judgment from many angles.

Trump knows that thousands of Iranians, during nationwide protests against religious tyranny, took his political promises seriously-that America would come to help them. Yet before the eyes of the world, the savage mullahs, or criminal ayatollahs, slaughtered-at minimum, in the most optimistic estimate-40,000 people, while Tehran’s dictator, Ali Khamenei, shamelessly labeled the entire national uprising as Trumpist and American.

At the height of this bloody suppression and mass killing, Trump also deported a third plane of Iranian refugees back to Iran, indifferent to the fate awaiting religious converts in the courts of the Islamic Revolution’s thugs.

So one must ask: does the US president merely intend to frighten a gang of criminals, thugs, and terrorists ruling Iran by displaying a few warships and issuing threats of war? Or does he believe they will suddenly abandon their maliciousness and viciousness, transform overnight into rational diplomats, and become moderate?

If so, this is futile in practice.

The Shi‘a mullah will not accept it, because he does not understand diplomacy and submits only to force. Driven by arrogance and self-importance, he sees all humanity as false and hostile.

Even now, Iraq-where from 2003 to 2011 the United States sacrificed thousands of soldiers and spent billions to eradicate terrorism and establish democracy-remains under the control of the Islamic Republic. Through terrorism, the Shi‘a mullah regime filled the post-Saddam power vacuum before the eyes of U.S. forces, extending its Shi‘a crescent and land corridor through Syria to Lebanon. Today, terrorist groups such as Hashd al-Shaabi, with the likely return of Nouri al-Maliki, are becoming even more active. Due to Shi‘a influence, full coordination exists between Ali Khamenei and Ali Sistani.

Fundamentally, the terrorist-loving criminal ayatollahs, following the Khomeini playbook, reject diplomacy. They thrive on crisis, chaos, destruction, evil, and sedition-not peace, stability, or development.

The development of missiles, drones, terrorism, nuclear bombs, chemical weapons, and weapons of mass destruction has been among the regime’s sinister goals-objectives it has invested in for 47 years, plundering the nation’s wealth to finance them. Until the final moment of its collapse, it will not abandon these instruments of power projection. Even after collapse, it is uncertain whether these lethal tools will fall into the hands of Shi‘a terrorist networks, prolonging Middle Eastern instability and sustaining underground Islamist terror cells for years.

With the current American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, one can argue that the conflict and hostility between Iran and the United States-which began in 1979 following the civilized departure of the late Shah and Jimmy Carter’s confused and illogical policies-will end only when this Khomeinist regime, whose ideological foundation is hostility toward America and Israel, is overthrown. Otherwise, peace, engagement, or any meaningful deal with this regime is impossible, regardless of who occupies the White House.

The clear fact is that Trump is not a man of war, but the aggressive and war-provoking regime of the “savage mullah" has imposed this conflict.

But in this conflagration, will there be surgical strikes on specific targets, weakening the regime and triggering collapse-thus beginning the long, rocky, and tortuous path toward democracy? Or, through secret agreements similar to Venezuela, will Khamenei be removed while the regime survives as a junta?

Even killing Khamenei and striking military installations would bring only superficial change. Without deep structural transformation, the Islamic caliphate of the Shi‘a mullah would remain intact. Only the most dangerous Islamic terrorist-collaborator of bin Laden, Imad Mughniyeh, Qassem Soleimani, Nasrallah, Sinwar, and others-would be eliminated. No one would mourn him, and the absurd title Ayatollah-“Sign of God"-would be buried with him forever. For now, out of fear, he has cowardly gone underground.

Will the regime collapse into chaos, creating internal disorder and a turbulent transitional period before elections-something terrifying for countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who fear the inferno of war? Or can a strong figure with social and political legitimacy, such as Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, assume this historic responsibility?

Whatever happens, the current regime may threaten American, Israeli, and Gulf forces until its final breath-but eventually, it will fade.

For now, Iran’s fate remains uncertain. Whether it will face new turmoil or embark upon the complex, arduous road of regime change toward its true destination remains unknown. Yet 40,000 human beings, yearning for this brighter horizon, joined the 19-Nation Movement and were slain by the rogue regime of the “savage mullah."

If collapse occurs, the most beautiful political scene of the 21st century will emerge, and a sinister phenomenon will be buried forever in the graveyard of history.

Erfan Fard is a Middle East political analyst. His latest book, Tehran’s Dictator, examines the theocratic era of Ali Khamenei (1989-2026). Twitter/X: @EQFard.