It is not only with the US and Israel that the Islamic Republic cannot conceive of normal nation-to-nation relations. Caught in the tangled web of a sick ideology they are prisoners of myths that are not easily circumvented. The Khomeinist ideology cannot conceive of a relationship with an adversary, a rival or a competitor. Whoever deviates from whatever happens to be "the path of the Imam" at any given time is regarded as enemy (dushman). While compromise is possible with an adversary, rival or competitor in personal life as in international relations, an enemy can only be defeated and destroyed. Because it has cast itself as a "sacred cause", the Khomeinist regime cannot behave as a nation state. And that has made it difficult, at times even impossible, for the Islamic Republic to deal with a host of mundane issues that a normal nation state would handle with little difficulty.

For example, ever since the fall of the USSR, the Islamic Republic has been negotiating a new status for the Caspian Sea with the other littoral states—Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Two decades later, however, there is not the slightest prospect of an agreement. The reason is the Islamic Republic's "my way or the highway" negotiating strategy. A "divine government" cannot offer any concessions to powers hostile to "true Islam". For years, the Islamic Republic campaigned to join the so-called Shanghai Group, a club of Central Asian nations led by China and Russia and supposedly dedicated to fighting terrorism and smuggling. Talks led to an impasse because Tehran wanted to change the rules of the club by joining it. So far, China and Russia have refused to surrender to Iran, allowing it only observer status. As far as membership of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) is concerned, Iran is again adopting an à la carte approach. It insists on picking and choosing which rules to obey and which to ignore. Again, the result is an impasse in negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that is charged with policing the NPT.

Even when it comes to relations with Muslim countries, the Islamic Republic remains a prisoner of its ideology. Years of talks with Iraq, under the friendly government of Nuri al-Maliki, have failed to produce an agreement to reopen the Shatt al-Arab border waterway, thus allowing Basra and Khorramshahr, respectively Iraq and Iran's biggest ports, to resume activity after a hiatus of more than 30 years. The reopening of the two ports would have a major impact on the two neighbours' economies. But no agreement is in sight because Tehran wants to dictate terms that no Iraqi government could accept. Iran is also at loggerheads with Afghanistan, its neighbour to the east, over sharing the waters of several border rivers, notably the Hirmand, Harirud and Parianrud. The Khomeinist regime has denounced agreements reached under the Shah as "capitulation" and insists on dictating terms that, despite its massive dependence on Tehran, the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai would not be able to sell to its own people.