The Iranians could never possibly agree to the pre-condition without believing that they would be losing face--and hence experience shame.
This will infuriate Ahmadinejad. Particularly since a woman has shamed them.
Michael Ledeen wrote about the Ahmadinejad Der Spiegel interview yesterday, and noted this:
The use of “humiliation” tells us a lot about the way the mullahs think about the world; they look at international events as a matter of domination or humiliation, and he hammers away at this theme: “Saying that we should accept the world as it is would mean that...the German people would be humiliated for another 1.000 years. Do you think that is the correct logic?”
Ledeen is right on target. The "logic" of shame cultures is far from rational, but it has its own set of internal rules. As I commented in an earlier piece about Shame and the Arab Psyche:
...one of the ways that those who fear shame protect their fragile self is to subjugate those who he perceives as weaker. By doing so, he can rationalize that he is superior to the subjugated individual. In fact, this is the only way he can maximize his honor.
Ahmadinejad's next step in this dance will be to do something that will bring him back his honor and eliminate the shame. It will not be something nice, like contributing to the Indonesian relief effort, either. He will have to do something to counter the humiliation of being outmaneuvered by Condi Rice.
Anyone in the world who is not yet convinced of the sick irrationality and mental instability of the leaders of this regime, will likely be witness to a demonstration on the part of Ahamdinejad that will remove all doubt.
But that has been part of the Bush Administration's strategy in dealing with Iran--give them enough rope and Ahmadinejad will surely hang himself; and the international community will eventually realize exactly what kind of insanity they are dealing with.
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