His features seemingly frozen in a perpetual frown, Mohsen Rezaei is one of the new hard-line faces of the Iranian regime. A former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a military advisor to slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he now serves Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, in the same post. Rezaei has been quoted in recent days as indicating that Iran’s policy of “strategic patience” is over and that Tehran will never bend to U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Rezaei, like other senior Iranian officials, once entertained the possibility of compromise with Washington. Indeed, he openly promoted it. Nearly two decades ago, during a 2007 reporting trip to Iran, I received a surprise invitation from Rezaei to meet him at his summer villa on the Caspian Sea, about 150 miles north of Tehran.

His features seemingly frozen in a perpetual frown, Mohsen Rezaei is one of the new hard-line faces of the Iranian regime. A former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a military advisor to slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he now serves Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, in the same post. Rezaei has been quoted in recent days as indicating that Iran’s policy of “strategic patience” is over and that Tehran will never bend to U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Rezaei, like other senior Iranian officials, once entertained the possibility of compromise with Washington. Indeed, he openly promoted it. Nearly two decades ago, during a 2007 reporting trip to Iran, I received a surprise invitation from Rezaei to meet him at his summer villa on the Caspian Sea, about 150 miles north of Tehran.

He didn’t smile much then, either. But it was clear that Rezaei and the regime were looking for a face-saving way out of the nuclear standoff with Washington, which was almost as tense then, under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as it is now. After offering me tea and fruit in his garden, Rezaei indicated that the Islamic Republic was eager for some kind of deal and told me: “If America pursues a different approach than confronting Iran, our dealings will change fundamentally.”

A woman walks past electoral campaign posters of Iranian presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai in Tehran on May 28, 2009. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

Those days are, of course, gone, probably never to return. Now, Rezaei and his colleagues appear to be indicating that Iran is prepared for sustained open conflict with the United States. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has been inconsistent in saying what kind of agreement it might accept, and on May 11, the president said the month-old cease-fire that he announced in early April is now on “massive life support.”

This state of play became ever clearer over the weekend when, after days of touting a forthcoming deal with Iran, Trump found himself humiliated as Tehran slow-walked its response. The regime then delivered an offer that the president called “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” According to the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Tehran is insisting that the United States lift its blockade of Iranian shipping, immediately lift sanctions, pay reparations, unfreeze assets, and accept Iranian sovereignty over the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian position, which appears to offer only limited concessions on the all-important issue of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, reflects the uncompromising stance that Rezaei and other senior officials have staked out........

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