Robin Wright’s article on the Trump administration’s anti-Iranian campaign included an important quote from the Iranian foreign minister that deserves some comment:

On Wednesday, Iran dismissed the U.S. threat but expressed concern that escalating tensions could trigger a military confrontation. “President Trump believes that by pushing us, by imposing economic pressure on us, we will sell our dignity. Not gonna happen,” Zarif said, at the Asia Society, in New York, on Wednesday. “We don’t look at history in terms of two-, four-, and six-year terms as usually people do over there—the members of Congress or in the Administration or in the Senate. We look at history in millennia. And our dignity is not up for sale.”

Zarif’s comments about dignity here are significant because they explain better than almost anything else why the Iranian government isn’t going to yield to the “maximum pressure” campaign. Their government is concerned with their own preservation, of course, but to that end they aren’t going to accept the complete humiliation that giving in to U.S. demands under pressure would entail. It is a given that Iran hawks don’t care about Iranian dignity or self-respect, but that blinds them to the reality that effectively demanding another state’s capitulation provokes resistance and defiance. It also blinds them to the political reality inside Iran that makes negotiations with the U.S. on these issues impossible for the foreseeable future. Hawks cannot really be surprised that nationalists in another country would refuse to abandon what they consider to be their own national security interests, but because they hold the people in that country in such contempt they are unwilling or incapable of grasping how their hostility encourages nationalistic opposition to arrogant foreign interference. It is one of the many absurdities of Trump’s Iran policy that an administration that won’t shut up about the importance of sovereignty has absolutely no respect for anyone else’s.

This reminds us that Trump isn’t and never has been interested in a “better” deal from Iran, because that would imply that he is prepared to enter into serious negotiations and would be willing to offer the Iranian government more concessions in exchange. If Trump wanted a “better” deal, he wouldn’t simply apply pressure and demand more, but he would also demonstrate a willingness to offer Iran something besides punitive measures. If the U.S. wanted Iran to negotiate on other issues, insisting that they give up their dignity and self-respect as a condition of negotiating is guaranteed to fail. Then again, Iran hawks have never wanted to negotiate anything with Iran except for their surrender, so it makes sense that their demands are as insulting and unreasonable as can be.