Western diplomats who think that ceasefires and compromise with Iran and its proxies will pave the way to peace are deluding themselves, according to Middle East scholar Harold Rhode.
In the Arab and Muslim worlds, negotiating before avenging prior humiliations is regarded as a sign of weakness and defeat, Rhode told a Jewish Policy Center webinar August 8.
Iran has been on the receiving end of a series of embarrassing setbacks, ranging from an April 14 missile attack on Israel in which most of its missiles were shot down before reaching their target to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guest house in Tehran.
The Iranian regime’s failure to strike a decisive retaliatory blow against Israel is seen as weakness, according to Rhode, who spent 28 years in Pentagon as Advisor on Islamic Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, monitoring the strategic situation in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries.
The Arab and Muslim worlds also view with disdain Washington’s refusal to take action against the Tehran-backed Houthi regime in Yemen, which has dealt a devastating blow to international commerce by firing missiles and rockets at commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Rhode likened the notion that the United States and the West should negotiate with Tehran and its proxies is now to the argument of some World War II-era diplomats that we needed to negotiate with “moderate Nazis” prior to the surrender of Germany in 1945.
He added that Israel needs to be permitted to win the war against Iranian proxies, and that meaningful negotiations were possible only after a decisive victory created new facts on the ground.
Rhode emphasized that it is much more important “to take out the clerical regime” in Tehran than to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. Once the radical Shiite regime is gone, Rhode said, Iran would no longer pose a mortal threat to Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. And he reminded the audience that there are many scholars of Islam who are at odds with the Shiite regime’s interpretation of the Quran and other writings. These scholars, he said, are also threatened by the Islamic radicals, but if given an opportunity to speak and write freely, could enhance relations between Muslim communities and others around the world.
