The United States and Iran are set to begin peace talks on April 11 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

It’s a road to nowhere.

Despite President Donald Trump's claim that he achieved regime change in Iran, the country's leadership hasn't fundamentally changed. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, but the system he built remains. The faces may be different, but the ideology is not.

Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who will lead Iran's negotiating team, was a loyalist of the late supreme leader with deep ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Iran's most powerful military force.

If Trump sees him as a pragmatic dealmaker, that's a mistake. Ghalibaf isn't going to Islamabad to cut a lasting peace deal. Rather, he is focused on one thing: keeping the regime alive.

Iran's real power isn't what Trump thinks

For the Revolutionary Guard, that means holding onto the Strait of Hormuz and preserving Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Before the war, Iran projected power two ways: through its nuclear program and a network of proxy militias – Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and others – spread across the Middle........

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