Once again, the United States has sat down with Iran for yet another round of nuclear negotiations — this time the fifth. And once again, we are told that there will be another round in the "near future." Sound familiar? It should. Iran's cat-and-mouse diplomatic theater is not a breakthrough; it is a rerun. Just as the past rounds, this latest episode concluded without any meaningful agreement, while Iran continues to advance in its nuclear program, intercontinental ballistic missiles -- not needed to attack Israel -- and rebuild its air defense.
Iran knows exactly what it is doing. It is playing a game it has mastered for decades: stall, confuse, buy time, bring in the well-intentioned but toothless International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). All the regime needs to win the negotiations is to entrench enforceability and retain the ability to work in secret down the pike.
This endless cycle of negotiations is not a good-faith diplomatic process. It is a maneuver, a delaying tactic, most likely with a plan on how successfully to deceive. Whenever pressure mounts, Iran opens the door just enough to create the illusion of cooperation. Then it floods the conversation with talk of "complexity" and nuance.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a seasoned veteran of these talks, recently said, "The negotiations are too complicated to be resolved in two or three meetings." This quote is not a revelation; it is a tactic. These negotiations are not "complicated." At the same time, he claimed that this was "one of the most professional rounds of negotiations." That is how Tehran works — sound serious, appear engaged, stall for time, press forward to achieve the goal.
Iran has been playing this game for over 20 years. The goal is always the same: to outmaneuver American officials. Iranian diplomats are working under the direct strategy of a regime that has survived international pressure and sanctions for decades by learning how to manipulate the Western diplomatic process and the West's failure of backbone ever to hold them seriously to account. Every meeting is an opportunity for Tehran to gather intelligence, to gauge the U.S. political climate, to exploit partisan divides in Washington, and most importantly — to manipulate.
So, what exactly does Iran get from dragging the United States along these endless talks? Everything. Every day that passes without a deal is another day Iran gets to enrich more uranium, build new secret sites, continue amassing stockpiles of highly-enriched, easily weaponized uranium.
Iran could, at any moment, declare itself part of the nuclear weapons club. The mullahs could also negotiate a deal that grants them partial sanctions relief, re-entry into the global financial system, and access to international trade — all while keeping key parts of their nuclear program intact.
It never was "complicated." The core demand is simple — no uranium enrichment, no centrifuges, no exceptions. Period. That should be the unshakable foundation of any deal. Once that line is crossed or blurred, any deal becomes meaningless. An agreement that allows just the more international observers than the IAEA, rather than more international observers from the US and Israel or any fancy-sounding so-called "monitoring mechanisms," is not a real agreement. It is an American surrender. The Iranian regime's mottos are still "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."
Giving Iran any daylight to enrichment is not diplomacy — it is surrender.
US President Donald Trump seems shocked that he is being duped by the superstar of KGB (now the FSB) whose entire purpose is to dupe Americans and the West: You mean he is not really my good friend Volodya? Russian President Vladimir Putin has not gone crazy; we were crazy for believing him. The same holds true for Communist China's President Xi Jinping.
For years, some Washington elites and so-called foreign policy experts have insisted that Iran is a "rational actor" and that the issues are "complex"; But that language only serves to justify paralysis. The truth is much simpler. The Iranian regime is driven by Islamist ideology, by expansionism, by deep-rooted anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. Iran's is not a normal government. It is a revolutionary theocracy that funds terror groups -- Hezbollah and Hamas, the Houthis -- and sends weapons across the Middle East.
Iran does not want "peace." Iran wants victory. Why don't we? The only "peace" Iran is interested in is one strictly on its terms. With nuclear weapons, there will be "peace," all right -- the Iranian regime's survival, power and domination -- that kind of peace.
Iran's nuclear clock is ticking faster and louder every day. While American negotiators shake hands and make polite statements about "progress" and "bridging gaps," Iranian physicists and engineers are able to make nuclear bombs. We are not watching diplomacy — we are watching a slow-motion disaster. The disaster could be stopped, but only if we stop being spineless and pretending it's "complicated."
Iran is duping the United States once again, with precision and confidence. Another round of negotiations has passed. Another is on the calendar. Meanwhile, Trump's "deadlines" with Hamas and Iran have come and gone, thoroughly eroding his credibility with Putin, Xi, Kim, NATO and everyone else. There have been no consequences, no accountability and no results.
Trump, while having good intentions, is being played and does not even know it.
This is not about compromise or Munich 2.0. This is about survival. Ours, not theirs. Stop being played.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
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