Karim Sadjadpour

And we're also demanding that they significantly curtail their missile program, they cease their support for these destructive regional proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, and that they treat their population better.

What the Iranians have said is, we will only speak to you about our nuclear program.

None of those other things are on the table.

And we refuse outright to agree to zero enrichment.

So at the moment, there is no overlap in what we're demanding and what they're prepared to offer.

And again, I go back to the person of Ayatollah Khamenei, 86 years old.

His only big idea over the last decades has been resistance.

He's long believed that if you capitulate or you compromise as a result of pressure, that's not going to...

ultimately prolong your shelf life.

That's going to convey and project weakness to your adversary, and they're going to take a step forward.

And so I think at his age, at the moment, he seems prepared to die a martyr more than he is to die a capitulator.

The other challenge we have, Scott, is that in contrast to the government that existed in Iran before the revolution, the Shah's government,

in which most of the government's and military's elite had studied in America or Europe and spoke foreign languages and potentially had foreign passports and can remake their lives in Los Angeles and London.

These guys, as I said, they're probably one of the most isolated, friendless regimes in the world.

And there's not a lot of places they can go to for plan B. And so for that reason, what we've seen from them internally is they're prepared to kill tens of thousands of their own people rather than cede power.

And vis-a-vis external adversaries, the mindset of the Supreme Leader is that if we give in to this pressure, it's not going to save us.

It's going to invite even more pressure.

I think the likelihood of boots on the ground is very slim.

I don't see any support within the Democratic Party for that, nor do I really see it among Republicans.

I think even people like Vice President Vance would probably profoundly oppose that.