Elliott Abrams

Well, two months ago, $200 billion a day, let's say.

That's a lot of money on a 30-day or 365-day basis.

But the president has foiled that idea.

by saying the United States would not permit it, that we might blockade the Strait or at least stop ships that we're paying.

Now, it's easier said than done in a number of ways.

And one of them is you can pay, I assume, by quite elaborate crypto paths that no one will find out.

While you're saying who?

Us?

We're not paying.

But I think the Iranian effort to monetize the Strait probably won't work.

And why is that?

Partly because it's an international waterway, and I think there are an awful lot of countries around the world, China to start, but all the major Asian economies, all the major European economies will be against it and try to prevent it.

And partly because the United States, if we want to prevent it, would be able to do so.

Well, first, I wonder if it's still reasonable to call it a theocracy.

It certainly was, I would argue, under the two supreme leaders, Khomeini first, and then Ali Khomeini, who was recently killed.

Today, the so-called supreme leader is, first of all, absent.

And there's no real reason to think he's going to make an appearance.

People say he's disfigured, but that would not presumably prevent him from, say, a radio address.

And even if he becomes Supreme Leader, he is younger, he's not an Ayatollah, and he is appointed due to the binastic principle which this regime, the Islamic Republic, has railed against for decades.

So I think that he will be much less legitimate and much less powerful.