Patrick Wintour

And also there was some evidence that the Iranians were trying to lay further mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

And at the moment, the Iranian reaction is by their standards relatively muted.

And I think they're going to try and still focus on getting this deal rather than going into a kind of mode of saying the ceasefire is over and we're back to fighting.

Yeah, it's a bit of a caravan.

At the moment, I think the talks are going on in Doha, because one of the big issues has been around the issue of Iran's frozen assets and whether they can be unfrozen by the Americans and whether Qatar would be.

where I think some of the big money is could be released.

And for the Iranian point of view, it's really important that that money is released right at the start of the process, not sort of that it's conditional on something else.

They want it right up front.

Yeah, I think it was really kind of messy landing for the proposals over Saturday and Sunday.

And you have Lindsey Graham, who's probably one of his closest allies, extremely critical.

Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, also saying that this was a disaster.

And, you know, key people on the Armed Services Committee as well, very critical.

So it was a really bumpy reception.

And I think the key point they're making is they feel that the whole nuclear file has been deferred to later.

And that the sole focus is trying to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, which had obviously been previously opened before the war started.

So everyone's saying, well, what was the point of all that?

Yeah, I think they do feel emboldened.

I mean, if anything, the regime has changed, but it's changed into a much more security orientated, less clerical, less centrist regime than before.

And I think they feel that they've managed to ride out a storm that the big deterrent that's always been hanging over them, which is an attack by America, has happened and they've survived it.

So it's a kind of transformatory moment for Iran.