President Donald Trump is pursuing negotiations with Iran while Iran, through its proxies and revolutionary ideology, continues to wage a long-running military campaign against American interests and allies. The obvious question is: how can the United States negotiate in good faith with a regime that has spent more than four decades defining itself by hostility toward America?

Diplomacy has its place, but successful diplomacy begins with a clear-eyed understanding of the adversary. The Islamic Republic is not merely another nation pursuing ordinary geopolitical interests. It is a revolutionary regime whose leaders have repeatedly framed their struggle in ideological and religious terms. That distinction matters.

Western governments often approach negotiations assuming that every dispute can be resolved through compromise over territory, economic incentives, sanctions, security guarantees, or political concessions. Such assumptions are rooted in a secular view........

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