It’s been a month since public atrocities began anew in Iran, since thousands of protesters were slaughtered for demonstrating in the streets to denounce the mullahs and their dictatorial regime. President Donald Trump promised aid to the Iranians struggling for freedom. Yet it seems no retribution has befallen the ayatollahs.

This month, negotiators from both the United States and Iran met in Oman to discuss terms on how the regime treats its people. “One country is much stronger, but the weaker country cares more,” Defense Priorities analyst Rosemary Kelanic told Fox News. “And historically, the country that cares more often wins by outlasting the stronger one.” In fact, many believe the U.S. has no appetite for conflict with Iran beyond last summer’s obliteration of its nuclear weapons sites.

Frankly, Iran is banking on the U.S. not being willing to engage in further conflict to leverage the negotiations. The Iranian regime, predictably, wants its nuclear program restored, wants the ability to produce ballistic missiles, and wants control of its proxy armies. All of these are nonstarters for Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump this week to express Israel’s needs and priorities in the Iran negotiations. Netanyahu is concerned and desires that there be a limit on Iran’s ballistic missiles and a definitive stop to the regime’s axis of terror.

In The Wall Street Journal, columnist Walter Russel Mead explores the compelling possibility that without the threat of Iran, Israel’s position in the region remains isolated.

Unfortunately for the Israelis, the choice is either to deal with the crazy sole neighbor that most wants to kill them, or deal with every crazy neighbor on every side that would kill them if given the chance. The only difference is that Iran would happily kill and dominate every country in the Middle East, distracting the other Arab nations from their anti-Israel sentiments.

Perhaps Mead’s theory applies. Perhaps the Abraham Accords only work with Iran as the antagonist, which adds an interesting counterpoint to Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump this week, whose outcome was continued uncertainty. As Trump posted on Truth Social:

There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated. If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that it will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be… Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them.

Trump, via the Pentagon, has also ordered a second aircraft carrier to begin preparations for a voyage off the coast of Iran to join the USS Abraham Lincoln. The president is pursuing deterrence through readiness to put pressure on Iranian negotiators.

However, the stakes keep on rising, and Iran isn’t taking any U.S. threats seriously. Nobel Peace laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who has been in an Iranian prison since December, has been brutally attacked — beaten with sticks, dragged by her hair, and kicked severely in the pelvic region.

There are additional stories of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killing political prisoners. They are going through hospitals and executing patients in hospital beds.

These are not the actions of a government in fear of retribution. They are, however, the actions of a brutal dictatorship in fear of its people.

While it is understandable for Trump to find a peaceful option with the Iranians, there is also a lot to be said for putting the bully in its rightful place. The ayatollahs don’t respect anything except brutal strength. Perhaps it’s time the U.S. showed them some. President Trump has indeed told his advisers to give him some “decisive” options.

I am not saying that the U.S. should intervene in every instance of international injustice. Iran, though, is different. The regime there believes it is at war with us and is acting as defiant and evil as it possibly can, as if it isn’t afraid of consequences. If Trump walks away from the negotiations without distributing some justice to the innocent protesters in Iran, thousands of whom have been horrifically slaughtered at the hands of their government, this might be seen as his Afghanistan moment à la Joe Biden.

Donald Trump recently told the Iranian protesters that he had their backs. Turning his back on them now would only further enable the regime to continue its reign of terror and risk once again making the United States a laughing stock.