Benham Ben-Taliblu

Some of that highly enriched uranium, hopefully all of the enriched uranium stockpile.

And this is where the regime is going to play to the edge in terms of trying to get as many concessions from Washington up front.

But this is an agreement to enter a much larger, more complex problem.

Well, the price of oil continues to fall.

But broadly, I would say, if we're going to define U.S.

political, diplomatic, and even military success against the Islamic Republic in economic terms, we should have looked at what the blockade, which the U.S.

had for about a month and a half in force,

was able to do to the regime's oil exports.

But broadly, you need to have the agreement out there.

And once that agreement is out there, then we can begin to judge, are markets underreacting or overreacting?

But one of the things that have constrained the president throughout the course of the war and even the ceasefire was both the media and market reaction.

And the president's rhetoric, more so even than U.S.

policy action, has been an attempt to dampen and drive down

the hype and the hyperbole in media and markets.

So the president is paying very close attention, I should say, to the market and the oil market in particular.

It's always a serious concern with the Islamic Republic because even though they have a bad hand, they tend to play a bad hand well.

But if you keep them there, they can overplay their hand, and that can actually unlock some stronger U.S.

policy options against this regime.

When you're negotiating with this regime and you want to do a deal,

The problem is, if it's not going to be a lopsided deal, the regime is going to push for either cash, sanctions relief, waivers, or access to frozen funds.