U.S. negotiators would do well to read some Iranian poetry. It matters, greatly

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When U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages,” Iranians were not slow to respond.

“Iran is a land that, when many nations were still in the Stone Age, was building cities, writing laws, and shaping civilization,” journalist Yashar Soltani posted on X. “A nation with such a history cannot be driven backward by threats.”

His comments echoed those by Brigadier-General Majid Mousavi, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace commander: “Hollywood illusions have contaminated your thinking so much that with a tiny 250-year history you are threatening a civilization that is more than 6,000 years old.”

This instinctive invocation of history, nationhood and civilization by a journalist and a general is a quintessentially Iranian reflex − and a clue to what the U.S. should understand about its old enemy ahead of any further negotiations to end this latest conflict.

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“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles,” Chinese strategist and general Sun Tzu wrote more than 2,500 years ago. “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”

So how well does the Trump administration know Iran?

Nicholas Hopton, director-general of the U.K.’s Middle East Association and a former ambassador to Iran, is skeptical: “The fundamental problem seems to be that the White House and the U.S. President do not seem disposed to listen to advice from experts.”

The decimation of the State Department and the diplomatic corps has left the administration reliant on negotiators with limited experience − in this case, Vice-President JD Vance, along with Mr. Trump’s friend, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

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Iranian officials, meanwhile, are steeped in brinkmanship and the dark art of achieving a deal in their own time and on their own terms, based on clear objectives, red lines and well-honed tactics.

The first thing for Western negotiators to bear in mind is that history in Iran is much more than background noise. While Western officials focus on the Strait of Hormuz, blockades, sanctions, nuclear enrichment levels, missile capabilities and military pressure, Tehran’s approach to talks is shaped by Iran’s history, routinely used and abused to reinforce nationalist sentiment.

History, like poetry, is a living force in Iran. It informs the regime’s profound mistrust of the West, the pathological aversion to foreign intervention and, even long before the mullahs arrived, the culture of resistance seared into the country’s DNA.

How many in the West remember the Anglo-American coup to overthrow Iran’s first democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953? What about Iran’s survival of the apocalyptic invasions of Genghis Khan in the 13th century and Timur in the 14th? Understanding all this is a necessity.

When Explosive Media, the Iranian digital media company producing viral, Lego-style AI videos, includes Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in its clips, that’s because Husayn’s martyrdom at the Battle of Karbala in 680 still resonates with Iranians in ways Westerners struggle to fathom. It’s a commemoration of resistance against tyranny.

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As Ali Ansari, a professor of Middle East history at St Andrews University, argues in The Art of the Deal (Iran edition), negotiators must “know your history.” Any encounter with Iranian diplomats begins with a litany of grievances intended to place the burden of guilt on their Western counterparts. “Be knowledgeable enough to respond and point out that the Russians did far worse to Iran in the last 200 years, and there seems little problem with them.”

Knowledge of Iranian history and culture also serves the important purpose of flattery. Iranians are just as likely “to act from the dictates of imagination and vanity, than of reason and judgement,” 19th-century diplomat Sir John Malcolm observed.

“A fundamental part of negotiating with Iran is to recognize and respect their national history of almost 3,000 years, their independence and position as a regional power,” Mr. Hopton said. “Failing to do this makes achieving a deal much harder.”

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No matter the corruption and savagery of this regime, Iranian nationhood draws upon a vast store of dynastic history and confers considerable pride. The list of civilizations and empires that have fed into modern Iran − Elamites, Medians, Achaemenids, Sasanians, Seljuks, Timurids and Safavids, Qajars, Pahlavis and revolutionary mullahs, to name a few − is like sifting through archeological strata. Today’s dystopian theocracy, in power since 1979, represents but a nanosecond in that history.

The regime has demonstrated typical pragmatism in this existential struggle. The mullahs have shifted from unsuccessful attempts to suppress the population’s strong nationalist sentiment, which they consider un-Islamic, to harnessing it for the regime’s survival.

That is not to say long-suffering, immiserated Iranians buy the regime’s rhetoric. As Abbas Amanat writes in Iran: A Modern History, Iranians are generally cynical about the regime’s xenophobia and isolationism. While 20th-century governments tried to enforce a nationhood based on compliance and docility, “the collective memory that was passed along through generations persisted and helped define and redefine a national identity defiant of repressive authorities.”

The result is a hard-wired identity based on one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, which has produced fine art, music, literature, poetry, philosophy, history, architecture, craftsmanship, horticulture, theatre and cinema.

Poetry is revered and recited in Iran by everyone from taxi drivers to nuclear scientists, schoolchildren and carpet weavers. “The key to understanding Iran is poetry,” writes translator Muhammad Ali Mojaradi. Not only are luminous classical poets such as Saadi, Rumi and Ferdowsi included in school curricula, their verses form part of everyday speech. For many Iranian families, a collection of poetry by Hafez, a 14th-century lyric poet, is as common a household item as a Quran.

Long histories give rise to long memories. They can also engender great patience, an attribute Iran excels in − to the frustration of negotiators in a hurry. The West tends to approach Iran as if the problem is exclusively one of leverage − squeeze tighter and the mullahs will buckle and rush to the negotiating table. But right now, and this is not lost on Tehran, it is the U.S. that seems most desperate for a deal, an impression reinforced by Mr. Trump’s repeated claims that Iran is clamouring for talks.

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Strong emotions should be left out of the room – and off social media. Lashing out is a big no-no, according to Prof. Ansari. Showing emotion is an indication of vulnerability and weakness. “The British, who are famed for their political judgment in Iran, have been described as khunsard – literally ‘cold-blooded’ – meaning rational and cool-headed. It’s a compliment.”

Contemplating Mr. Trump’s war of choice, there are uncomfortable parallels with another confrontation between West and East 2,500 years ago. In 480 BC, the proud and boastful Persian ruler Xerxes the Great invaded Greece, promising victory and failing spectacularly.

In Herodotus’s Histories, there is often a “wise adviser” on hand to counsel kings on important matters. What might such an adviser suggest to Western negotiators to avoid catastrophe today?

Do your homework, pick up a history book, respect your enemy, don’t shoot from the hip, prepare properly for talks, be patient. Read some poetry. And finish the job.