Negotiating with people whose word is no good

Andrew McCarthy:

...

It is an old pattern. The Iranians make commitments. The Iranians break commitments.

We would all like to pretend that there is some rationale for this other than the obvious one -- some economic or political explanation that would suggest a solution, accomplishment of which would somehow bring the Islamic Republic within norms of behavior among civilized nations.

Alas, it is not the case. The regime is an Islamic sharia state bent incorrigibly on exporting its revolution. As such, one of its guiding principles is al-Takiyya, the conceit that Muslims are free -- indeed, encouraged -- to lie and break oaths whenever it is expedient in the belligerent quest to spread the faith. War, Mohammed famously taught, is deception.

As we watch the latest outrage unfold in the Persian Gulf, it bears continuous reminding that Iran is a high contracting party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including Convention III Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The mullahs have never renounced the treaty since coming to power nearly 30 years ago. But, then again, why would they? Like the Nonproliferation Treaty, it is but a parchment promise: readily breakable if given to infidels, readily breakable as necessary to advance the jihad -- and a revolutionary Islamic state considers itself in a full-time state of war until all obstacles to imposition of Islamic law have been removed. Death to America and Death to the West are not just slogans for these folks; they are guiding principles.

So in just the last few days, reports abound that the Iranians are busily interrogating their captives about the circumstances surrounding their apprehension. Despite the British government’s global positioning satellite records proving that its personnel never left Iraqi waters, the mullahs falsely maintain that the Brits had strayed into sovereign Iranian territory. On no evidence, they accuse the marines and naval personnel of conducting espionage operations (a capital offense).

...

All of this blatantly violates Geneva. The British personnel are clearly prisoners of war seized in an armed conflict. They were in uniform, openly conducting patrol operations as part of a national military force. There need be no formal state of war for the conventions to be triggered. Under Article 2, they apply in “all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.” (Emphasis added.) Even if Iran had not for years been abetting the Iraqi insurgency against coalition forces, the seizure itself was an armed conflict on the high seas between two Geneva signatories -- had it not been, the Britons would not have been captured.

...

They also agreed to the nuclear non proliferation agreement. Anyone who credits this Iranian regime with good faith is making a serious mistake. Nor should they pretend that the Iranians are negotiating in good faith about anything. All the negotiations about the nuke issue has been about dragging out talks until they get their bomb ready. The current negotiations on the hostages about trying to thwart a fictional attack by the US and UK, because of their failure to stop building their nukes. There word is no good.