Jared Malsin

You know, industry is asking, how hard will the Americans push them on this issue in the negotiations?

Are they willing to blow up the ceasefire just over this issue?

We don't really have answers to all those questions right now.

One of the tactics of this regime is that they play hardball in negotiations.

They did this in the nuclear negotiations over the 2015 elections.

nuclear deal in the Obama administration, the so-called JCPOA, in which, you know, negotiators that worked on that deal told me that, you know, they would negotiate one day and they would think that they've, okay, we've settled this issue.

And then the next day, the Iranians would come back and just say, oh, no, that issue is reopened.

We didn't really agree to that.

The Iranians really sued up for this.

They used these kind of

tactical maneuvers in the context of negotiations to try to confuse and outmaneuver their opponents.

Again, to use the Strait of Hormuz as an example, this wasn't an issue in the negotiations six weeks ago.

It wasn't on the table.

The two sides were talking about the

Nuclear issue, the Americans wanted to also place restrictions on Iran's missile program, for example.

The Strait of Hormuz was not in those talks, and now it is.

We are going to wake up to a very different Middle East when the dust settles from this.

I can put it this way.

Iran's influence in the region was at a nadir prior to this.

Now, five or six weeks into this war, the tables have turned and they now have new lines of international influence, not just in the region, where they've totally changed the balance of power in the Persian Gulf vis-a-vis the Gulf states, but they also have