Laurence Norman

So the Iranians' biggest leverage now is their control of the Strait of Hormuz.

That is a huge economic problem for the rest of the world.

And it's going to be pretty difficult to wrest control from Iran militarily.

Pretty bad, I think it's fair to say.

I mean, the U.S.

is talking about the importance of reaching a deal and President Trump wants to talk and he's just tweeted out that it's going to be some huge reset.

The Iranians think that they've survived the war and they're making all kinds of preconditions for the talks and talking about the enemy that they destroyed and converting their battlefield wins into diplomatic wins.

So the Iranians' biggest leverage now is their control of the Strait of Hormuz.

That is a huge economic problem for the rest of the world.

And it's going to be pretty difficult to wrest control from Iran militarily.

The survival of the regime after 40 days of being pummeled by the Israeli and US Air Force is a kind of leverage.

But more importantly, they still have nuclear assets.

in particular highly enriched uranium, that they could use to build a nuclear weapon.

On the US side, they obviously have military leverage, but the US also has powerful economic sanctions that force not just US companies, but most of the world, not to do business with Iran.

Iran's number one goal for many years has been the removal of those sanctions, and that is hefty leverage the US has in its pockets.

So number one issue is what happens to Hormuz?

How can the world get vessels back through the Hormuz?

And in return for Iran giving greater freedom, even if it maintains some control, what does Iran get?

The number two issue, the US wants Iran to stop enriching uranium and close down its nuclear program.

Iran has spent 15 years, 20 years telling the U.S.