The U.S. Must Finish the Job in Iran.

The United States finds itself in strategic limbo. Mediated talks in Pakistan inch forward while American and Israeli bombs continue to strike Iranian military targets. The regime demands the release of $24 billion in frozen assets as a precondition for talks. And the Trump administration, desperate to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and deliver relief at the pump before the midterms, appears willing to entertain precisely the kind of surrender that strategic realists have warned against for two decades.

Any negotiated settlement that leaves the current regime intact is not a diplomatic victory. It is a moral betrayal of the tens of thousands of Iranians this regime has slaughtered, a knife in the back of the students and workers still risking their lives in the streets, and a catastrophic failure of American grand strategy that would endanger Israel, empower radical Sunni actors, and leave the Middle East more dangerous than ever.

The Blood on the Diplomat’s Hands

The case against negotiation has always rested on a simple truth that the Islamic Republic is a death cult, not a negotiating partner. The events since February 2026 have only confirmed this.

When anti-regime protests erupted in January, the regime responded with a level of brutality that shocked even seasoned observers. According to the United Nations, an estimated 40,000 Iranians were killed by regime forces during the January uprising alone. Forty thousand. In a single month.

Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli campaign on February 28, the crackdown has intensified. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reports that at least 21 people have been executed on national security charges, with more than 4,000 arrested. Among the executed are a 21-year-old karate champion and a 19-year-old wrestling champion—young athletes whose only crime was protesting for their freedom.

The regime imposed an 87-day near-total internet blackout, severing Iranians from the world and from each other, while the Revolutionary Guards tortured detainees, conducted mock executions, and forced televised confessions.

This is the regime for which the word “grand bargain” is being uttered in Washington. To sit across the table from the men who ordered the murder of 40,000 citizens is to tell the families of the dead that their blood is an acceptable price for oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strategic Reality: This Regime Cannot Be Reformed

The counter-argument from the realist camp, articulated most recently by Jennifer Kavanagh and Rosemary Kelanic in Foreign Affairs, is that the United States has no good options. They argue that Iran’s bargaining position has........

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