Let us not mince words. The diplomatic jig is up. A single phone call between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly sent Western negotiators into a flat spin, threatening to unravel months of painstaking talks over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And as we watch the usual suspects clutch their pearls and wring their hands, one cannot help but recall the late Roman Senate’s impotent rage as the barbarians marched through the gates. The West, it seems, has forgotten how to deal with men who speak plainly.
The details of the call, as leaked to the press, are predictably ‘crazy’ – at least to the ears of the seasoned diplomat. Words were spoken that do not appear in the standard lexicon of multilateral negotiations. There were threats, perhaps, or ultimatums. There was certainly no deference to the ‘rules-based order’ that has become the West’s secular religion. And for that, we should be grateful. The current approach to Iran has been a masterclass in self-delusion. We negotiate with a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ while enriching uranium; we send cheques to a terrorist state and expect them to behave like Switzerland. The Trump-Netanyahu dynamic, as ‘erratic’ as it may appear, at least acknowledges reality.
Consider the historical parallel. When Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938, he waved a piece of paper and declared ‘peace for our time’. The establishment cheered. The intellectuals applauded his statesmanship. And within a year, the world was at war. Today’s Iran deal, or whatever facsimile remains, is our Munich. We are so desperate to avoid the appearance of conflict that we have empowered a theocratic regime with the means to destroy entire cities. Trump and Netanyahu, whatever their faults, understand that some threats cannot be negotiated away. They must be confronted.
Of course, the chattering classes will decry this as recklessness. They will warn of regional war, of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. But what do they propose instead? More sanctions that Europe will refuse to enforce? More ‘verification mechanisms’ that Iran will ignore? The patient has been on life support for too long. Sometimes, you must cut out the cancer.
The irony is that the West’s own decadence has brought us to this point. We have become a civilisation that prizes tact over truth, process over purpose. We have elevated the art of the communiqué to a form of madness, producing statements that are masterpieces of ambiguity. No wonder the Iranians have outmanoeuvred us at every turn. They respect only strength, for that is the language of the mullahs’ own scripture. And in Trump and Netanyahu, they have finally found adversaries who speak it.
Let the negotiations collapse. Let the ‘deal’ die a well-deserved death. What emerges from the ashes may be ugly, even violent. But it will be honest. And in a world of diplomatic prevarication, honesty is the most radical position of all. The West’s elites can continue their agonised hand-wringing if they wish. Meanwhile, the real men will get on with the business of survival.
