Jeffrey Sachs

So no joy and therefore no, in my view, not a humiliation.

Second, it's weird to say, and I'm sure many people will object to what I'm about to say or not understand it or think I don't know what I'm talking about, but I do.

The Iranian people are really very civilized.

They have wanted to negotiate for years.

All of this depiction of the evil of Iran that we have been played to since 1979 also mistakes the reality in a fundamental way.

And so when you say that Iran would control the Straits, actually, they would not control it in a malevolent way that Americans would be led to expect by hearing that this is the most evil of evil empires.

That's what we've been told for decades, that this is the axis of evil, that this is the heart of evil.

Netanyahu...

said that they wanted to annihilate us and so forth.

This is not correct at all.

It is our nonstop official propaganda narrative.

If you go to Iran, which I have been very lucky to do, if you speak to Iranians, which I do frequently and have done for decades,

a very long time.

The official narrative that Iran is so evil that we can't leave it in control of the Strait of Hormuz just gets everything wrong to begin with.

And maybe I'll just say one quick historical word about this.

Where does this hatred and venom come from?

With respect to the United States, it's very simple.

In 1953, Iran was a parliamentary democracy.

Iran had not invaded or attacked another country for a century and a half.

This was a peaceful country.