Natalie Kitroff

They've been willing to bomb their neighbors to sow chaos in the region.

Does that bear on their pragmatism?

Like, how do you make sense of that?

Okay, you're starting to get into this, but let's talk about the actual terms of any deal.

You said these generals are open to a real give and take with the American side.

So what are they willing to offer and what do they want?

From Iran's perspective, basically, the idea is, look, the United States and Israel have really destroyed a lot of our country.

We need money to rebuild it.

They're actually, you're saying, talking about inviting the Americans in as investors, as collaborators.

You're saying working with them to rebuild the country, really.

What about the other sticking points of any deal?

For example, the big one, restricting the enrichment of uranium that the Iranians could use to build a bomb.

Where do they stand on that?

Right.

And part of the tension there is that President Trump also needs to be able to save face and message to the American public that he actually got something out of this war and that what he got was better than the deal that had already been achieved under Obama to restrict and cap uranium enrichment in Iran.

So both sides are dealing with that face-saving impulse.

OK, let's talk about the Strait of Hormuz, the million dollar question on everybody's mind.

Will things go back to normal in the Strait or does Iran and its leaders now see this as theirs to control as they see fit?

Oh, wow.

So even here, you see their pragmatism at work, looking for money-making opportunities, calculating the best way to do that.