SAEDNEWS: Opponents of negotiations argue that since the United States' hands are stained with blood, no one should even talk about negotiating with them. However, such an approach does not clarify a clear path, goal, or destination for a strategy of "war until victory."
According to SaedNews, quoting Rouydad 24, since January 2020, following the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, a banner reading "After Soleimani, anyone who talks about negotiations will have their mouth filled with blood" became quite popular. The noise that had quieted during the 13th administration is now resurfacing with the activation of the Islamic Republic's diplomatic faction.
Opponents of negotiations assert that because the U.S. has blood on its hands, no one should speak of negotiating with them. They argue that the "war until victory" strategy does not provide a clear direction or goal, but despite this, their voices are loud, their influence strong, and the chaos they create is significant. It is, however, worth examining the stance of those who claim, "Since the U.S. assassinated General Soleimani, we should not negotiate with them," through a review of the history of the Islamic Republic.
A well-known saying from Imam Khomeini (R.A.) notes that, aside from Israel and apartheid South Africa, he did not prohibit Iran from engaging diplomatically with any other country or regime.
It is estimated that during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, up to one million people, both military and civilian, lost their lives on both sides. Around 500,000 of these casualties were Iranian, though some experts believe the actual death toll for Iran may be higher. Between 123,000 and 160,000 of the Iranian casualties occurred during military operations, and around 60,000 Iranian soldiers went missing in action. An additional 320,000 to 500,000 Iranians were wounded or disabled, and between 11,000 and 16,000 Iranian civilians were killed.
Despite this, Iran not only negotiated with Iraq but also signed a peace treaty. The route for trade between Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq was never completely shut down before Saddam's regime was toppled.
In 1987, before the Iran-Iraq war ended, the U.S. shot down Iranian Air Flight 655 over the Strait of Hormuz. This incident occurred during the presidencies of Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. As a result, 241 Iranians aboard the flight to Dubai were killed. Eventually, Iran and the U.S. reached an agreement, including the U.S. agreeing to compensate the Iranian government and the victims' families.
After this, Iran and the U.S. engaged in multiple rounds of negotiations, including during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and through both open and secret talks in intermediary countries like Oman and Geneva. The negotiations that led to the nuclear agreement, or JCPOA, were just a short and late chapter in the larger history of Iran-U.S. negotiations since the Islamic Revolution.
In 1987, during the well-known Hajj massacre in Mecca, 275 Iranian pilgrims were killed by Saudi police during a confrontation sparked by Saudi authorities’ suppression of a pro-Iran demonstration. While this event initially strained relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it never completely severed diplomatic ties. Over the years, several incidents between the two countries have led to bloodshed, including the strict Saudi laws on drugs and occasional executions of Iranian pilgrims accused of carrying drugs.
Over the past four decades, relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have often led to the closure of embassies, but diplomacy has remained open, and the two countries have negotiated on various issues.
During the first fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif was attacked, and nine Iranians, including diplomats and journalists, were killed. Some of their bodies were never found. While both the Taliban and Pakistan were responsible for this attack, Iran later negotiated with the Taliban both after their first rule in 1996-2001 and after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
In addition to being responsible for the attack on Iran's consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Pakistan has sheltered terrorist groups like Jundallah in its territory, leading to the killings of Iranian citizens. In 2023, Pakistan was also responsible for an attack that killed ten Iranians, including five women and four children. Despite this, diplomatic relations between Iran and Pakistan have never been severed, and high-level political exchanges have continued.
Throughout history, violence and bloodshed have been a constant. Perhaps the only consistent principle in history is that states and nations, and even ordinary people, continuously engage in conflict with one another. The idea of eternal vengeance is not even part of the traditions of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the religious leaders (A.S.), and rather than supporting the possibility of a fragile peace, it leads to more bloodshed.
In such a context, the continuous calls from various media platforms against negotiations only reveal that those who insist on the permanent rejection of negotiations are not only unaware of the principles of diplomacy but also lack knowledge of global and Islamic history. If the Prophet and the religious leaders negotiated with non-believers and occupiers, Iran, too, can negotiate with foreign governments if it sees its interests in such negotiations.
