Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told ambassadors and representatives of foreign countries in a meeting, “If the U.S. repents and changes course… we are ready to accept the repentance and change of even the U.S. that has done us injustice for years.”
Last week, Rouhani’s Minister of Intelligence, Mahmoud Alavi, claimed that the Iranian people wouldn’t want their leaders to negotiate with the U.S. despite their current economic miseries. “The people understand this and won’t ever damage their national unity because of the impact of [our] enemies’ on their lives and won’t have treat their officials unkindly and deny them the opportunity to solve the difficulties and won’t put pressure on them to sit at a negotiation table with the U.S. out of weakness so that the people are comforted and their problems are solved.”
However, ordinary Iranians can’t afford to put meat on their families’ tables.
Regarding those who seek to solve economic difficulties through negotiations, Mohammadreza Naqdi, Cultural Deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, criticizes them, saying, “The Supreme Leader has said years ago that he isn’t optimistic about negotiations with the U.S. and the country’s economic [difficulties] won’t be solved through negotiation with the U.S. and today we have experienced that negotiations don’t solve the difficulties of the nation.”
Whatever the Iranian regime chooses to do — negotiate or not — will damage their credibility. The reason for this is that if the Iranian regime continues on its current path it will face further isolation and economic sanctions that will accelerate the demise of its economy. Yet, to even begin negotiating with the U.S., the regime must accept the plan of U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and abandon its nuclear, ballistic missiles, and regional hegemonic ambitions. Analysts believe that the essence of the Pompeo’s plan contradicts the fundamentalist philosophy of the Islamic Republic, and accepting it will lead to its eventual collapse.
