Iran’s Demands: Negotiation or Capitulation?
So much for the repeated assurance that “Iran will never get a nuclear bomb.”
IRGC Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi has now declared that because the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, Iran will continue pursuing them in the name of “national security.”
“If they disarm, we will disarm.”
This is the same regime that has spent decades chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” while arming, financing and directing terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East and repeatedly threatening Israel’s destruction.
Vahidi’s statement strips away the fiction that Tehran is negotiating over whether it will acquire nuclear weapons. It is not. For the mullahs, negotiations are a tactic—to stall, reduce pressure and continue advancing toward a nuclear capability they have never abandoned.
If such a regime acquires nuclear weapons, there is every reason to fear they would become instruments of coercion, intimidation and nuclear blackmail.
A regime whose leaders openly call for the destruction of America and Israel cannot be judged by the standards of ordinary diplomacy. Its promises are tactical, not strategic; its negotiations are designed to delay, not disarm. That is why I subscribe to Elie Wiesel’s warning: “We must always believe the threats of our enemies more than the promises of our friends.”
Yet President Trump, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff appear willing to believe that an agreement signed by Tehran will be honored. History offers little reason for such confidence. Iran has deceived inspectors, concealed nuclear activities and violated international commitments whenever doing so served its interests.
And now Tehran has added another extraordinary chapter.
Iran—the country President Trump has declared vanquished—has presented demands that must be met before it will fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Mind you, Iran, the vanquished, is making demands of the United States, the victor.
Among those demands: end US military action, withdraw American forces from the region, lift the naval blockade and sanctions, release Iran’s frozen assets, and end what Tehran calls American threats and insults.
And then comes the most audacious demand of all:
The United States must compensate Iran for the damage caused by the war.
Imagine that.
The same regime that has spent decades chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” sponsoring terrorism, attacking American interests and arming Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis now wants America to pay Iran reparations.
This, the ultimate form of chutzpah, isn’t a peace proposal; it’s a ransom note.
Iran is effectively saying: We will allow the world’s ships to pass through one of the world’s most important waterways—but only after the United States gives us what we want.
President Trump should reject these demands outright. Negotiation is one thing; capitulation is another. There is nothing wrong with pursuing peace. There is everything wrong with allowing a regime that has repeatedly demonstrated its hostility toward the United States, Israel and the free world to dictate the terms.
Iran should not be rewarded for weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz, compensated for a war it helped bring about, or permitted to hold the world’s economy hostage. Most importantly, America must not confuse Iran’s desire for relief with Iran’s desire for peace. Those are vastly different things.
Tehran has made its demands.
Now Washington should make its own:
Open the Strait. End the threats. Abandoning terrorism. Permanently dismantle the nuclear weapons program. Stop financing and arming terrorist proxies. And make clear that the United States will negotiate—but it will not surrender.
Iran has shown us who it is.
Now we must show Iran who we are.
