U.S. and Iran: The Empire Wants Surrender, Not Peace

Despite hopeful signs coming out of the U.S.–Iran negotiations in Oman, the history of the conflict shows that Washington isn't willing to accept a lasting compromise.

For years, the U.S. has tried to break Iran—through sanctions, sabotage, war threats, and assassinations (who could forget the US killing of Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020). It’s thrown everything at the wall, hoping something would stick. But Iran didn’t collapse, nor fall for the bait and launch an all-out attack at the U.S. or Isreal. Even when the latter attacked its embassy in Damascus and assassinated a state guest (a Hamas leader) in Tehran, the Iranian leadership answered with restrained and military action aimed at not escalating into all-out warfare. Now, after decades of pressure, it’s not Iran that looks desperate, it’s the United States. In a recent discussion on Neutrality Studies, Professor S.M. Marandi, a former advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, spells it out: the West is losing its grip on the world—including on West Asia.

The Deal That Was Never Meant to Last

Remember the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015? The big nuclear deal hailed as a breakthrough under President Obama? Iran kept its end of the bargain. The U.S. didn’t. Not for a single day. While Iranian scientists paused enrichment and complied with inspections, Washington kept sanctions in place. The Iranian Central Bank couldn’t even make normal transactions. Then Trump administration blew the whole thing up entirely.

Now Trump is back, or at least his people are, and they’re talking about deadlines, demands, and deals again. But, Marandi says, Iran isn’t falling for it anymore. This time, talks are indirect. No smiles, no handshakes, no illusions. Iran isn’t negotiating its sovereignty. It’s not going to discuss its drones or missiles or regional alliances. It will talk about nuclear enrichment, because that’s its right. Everything else? Off the table.

The West accuses Iran of flip-flopping. But it’s the Americans who constantly switch their narrative. One day they want peace. The next, they arm Israel and watch Gaza burn. They talk about “stability” while fuelling endless war. Who’s the unreliable one?

Iran’s Strategy: Wait, Watch, and Outlast

Iran isn’t threatening war, Marandi says, but preparing for it, because it saw through the U.S.’s ulterior motives. It has watched Iraq burn. It saw Syria shredded. It sees what’s happening in Gaza right now. The West doesn’t play fair, bombing hospitals in the name of “defence,” starving children in the name of “security.” But unlike Iraq or Libya, Iran isn’t defenceless. It has built underground bases, hardened infrastructure, and a regional alliance network strong enough to strike back, despite the recent blows to its allies in Syria and Lebanon.

However, military readiness is just one piece of the puzzle as Marandi sees it. The real story is economic and diplomatic. Iran is no longer betting on Western goodwill. It’s turning East. The country is trading more oil than ever despite sanctions. It’s linking up with Russia and China on transport, finance, and tech. And while Western leaders hurl threats, Iran hosts the Saudi defense minister with a letter from the king. The narrative of isolation might still be up and running in the West, but Iran and its BRICS partners are working tirelessly on making that a thing of the past.

The real shift is here: countries once afraid of the dollar are building systems that ignore it. The U.S. made its power unbearable and now the world is walking away. And Iran isn’t just resisting, it’s helping build the post-American world.

Let’s be honest. “Peace,” as framed by Washington, is mostly just rebranded domination. It’s a nice word for endless bombs and broken promises. Marandi is quite convinced that the West doesn’t want peace with Iran, it wants total surrender. And when it doesn’t get it, it calls Iran a threat. But what threat, exactly? Iran hasn’t invaded anyone. It’s not bombing schools. It’s not propping up genocide with billions of dollars and unlimited weapons. That’s the U.S. empire’s job.