As President Trump weighs the latest overtures from Tehran for some form of “peace,” the Islamic Republic’s mullahs are once again playing a familiar game. They wave the olive branch in public while sharpening their daggers in private. The regime’s history over 47 years reveals a consistent pattern: tactical pauses and diplomatic smiles are simply opportunities to regroup, rearm, and continue their campaign of domestic slaughter, international terrorism, and ideological warfare. Any genuine peace must confront this reality head-on rather than wish it away.

The theocratic takeover in 1979 did not emerge from a vacuum. In the years leading up to the overthrow of the Shah, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his network operated covertly from exile in Iraq and later France. Khomeini’s fiery sermons were smuggled into Iran via cassette tapes, building a revolutionary infrastructure among disaffected clerics, bazaar merchants, students, and leftist groups. This underground agitation combined religious fervor with populist grievances, carefully masking the full authoritarian theocracy that would follow. Once in power, the true nature of the regime became brutally clear.

From the earliest days of the Islamic Republic, hostility toward Jews and Israel became a cornerstone of its identity. In the early 1980s, the regime moved quickly to export its revolution and target the Jewish state. Iran played a pivotal role in the creation and arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon following the 1982 Israeli incursion. This proxy immediately became a vehicle for anti-Jewish violence. The regime’s rhetoric fused traditional anti-Zionism with antisemitic tropes, portraying Jews and Israel as existential enemies of Islam. This hostility has remained a constant: from state-sponsored Holocaust denial under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lavish funding for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which have carried out countless attacks aimed at Jewish civilians. Iran’s “death to Israel” chants and “Ring of Fire” strategy are not rhetorical flourishes—they are operational doctrine.

Domestically, the mullahs have shown equal ruthlessness toward their own people. The 1988 mass executions remain one of the most chilling episodes. Following a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq War, Khomeini ordered “death commissions” that executed thousands of political prisoners—estimates range from 2,800 to as high as 30,000—primarily members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and leftist groups. Prisoners were asked simple questions about their beliefs; refusal to recant meant hanging. Mass graves still scar the Iranian landscape. This pattern of retribution has never stopped. The regime has relentlessly targeted opposition figures, religious minorities (Baha’is, Christians, Sunnis), ethnic groups (Kurds, Baluchis), women refusing the hijab, and LGBTQ individuals. Recent protest waves—2009 Green Movement, 2019 fuel protests, 2022 Woman Life Freedom uprising, and the ongoing 2025-2026 unrest—have been met with live fire, torture, sexual violence, and hundreds to thousands of deaths, alongside thousands of executions. Those who “do not fit in” under the theocratic boot face imprisonment, lashings, or the gallows.

Abroad, Iran has perfected state-sponsored terrorism. The United States designated it the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism for decades for good reason. Key examples include:

The 1983 Beirut bombings: Iran-backed Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad destroyed the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen and 17 U.S. diplomats in one of the deadliest attacks on Americans abroad.

The 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires: Iranian agents and Hezbollah murdered 85 people at a Jewish community center.

The 1996 Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia: 19 U.S. airmen killed.

Decades of arming and directing proxies: Hezbollah (hundreds of millions annually), Hamas, Houthis, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria that have killed hundreds of American troops with Iranian-supplied EFPs and drones. Since 2023, Iran’s network has launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases and international shipping.

Through these actions, the Islamic Republic has sought to dominate the interpretation of Islamic faith in the modern era. By establishing velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurist), Khomeini and his successors created a radical Shia theocracy that claims supreme religious and political authority. They have aggressively exported this revolutionary ideology, positioning Iran as the vanguard of “resistance” against the West, Israel, and Sunni powers. This has reshaped segments of Shia Islam worldwide, often pulling communities toward confrontation rather than quietist tradition. Iran’s funding of mosques, media, and militias has amplified a hardline interpretation that justifies terrorism as legitimate “resistance” and frames compromise as betrayal.

This is why Iran’s current demands for peace should be viewed with extreme skepticism. The mullahs want sanctions relief, economic breathing room, and diplomatic cover so they can continue killing dissidents at home—including Obama-era critics and other perceived rivals—assassinating opponents abroad, arming proxies to attack Jews and Americans, and advancing their nuclear program in the shadows. “Peace” for them is not coexistence—it is a tactical ceasefire to enable more atrocities.

True peace cannot be based on wishful thinking or unenforceable paper agreements. A realistic resolution must impose ironclad, verifiable conditions that strip the regime of its ability to commit terrorist atrocities:

Complete, verifiable, and permanent dismantlement of its proxy networks and cessation of all funding to Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and other terrorist groups.

Full, unrestricted IAEA access to all nuclear sites with snap inspections and the end of uranium enrichment beyond civilian levels.

An end to domestic repression, including independent monitoring of human rights and release of political prisoners.

Public renunciation of support for terrorism and antisemitic incitement, backed by concrete actions like shutting down IRGC Quds Force operations.

Ballistic missile limits and transparency on weapons programs.

Without these non-negotiable pillars, any “peace” will simply be a pause before the next round of killing. The mullahs have shown for 47 years that they respect strength and consequences far more than goodwill gestures. President Trump should remember this history. America and its allies deserve a policy grounded in realism, not the illusion that the Islamic Republic can be appeased into moderation.