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Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/iran-deals-wishful-thinking/
Why No Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran Will Ever Last
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Irina Tsukerman - No deal with the Islamic Republic is likely to last, no matter who is proposing it. The reasons lie in the ruling ideology of the Islamic Republic, which is dedicated to exporting the revolution abroad as a central tenet of the resistance. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is responsible for "fulfilling the Islamic mission of Jihad in God's way and of struggling for the cause of extending the sovereignty of God's law throughout the world." As declassified CIA documents from 1980 show, Iran has looked for ways to create an empire based on Khomeini-ist Shiite principles since the fall of the Shah. The regime has never veered from this course. The targets at risk in the Gulf today, including Bahrain, Iraq, and the Levant, have been the targets of Iran's ideological outreach and strategy since the early post-revolutionary days. As Tehran's ideology is driven by an apocalyptic vision and a sense of divine mission, no pragmatic consideration can ultimately deter it from its goals, and "deals" are seen as no more than temporary stopovers on the way to the fulfillment of that mission. Iran sees the IRGC not as a terrorist tool but as a force carrying out a divine undertaking: first enforcing the way of jihad among Muslims (who have thus far been the primary targets), and then anyone else who refuses to bow before it.