Richard Miniter

And it may well be what matters most in making peace.

And I want to remind you of an Iranian proverb now.

The bowl is hotter than the soup.

In other words, the interest of Iran in peace, the soup, isn't very high.

And that Trump is trying to warm the bowl, right?

But it doesn't warm the soup.

And it might be because the people in charge in Iran cannot figure out how they make peace and stay in power at the same time.

They understand how they stay in power if they had working atomic weapons, because that's the North Korean strategy.

They've looked at Ukraine, they've looked at Libya, and they've looked at North Korea and Pakistan, and they've said, well, hmm, turned out better for the Pakistanis and the North Koreans than for the Libyans and the Ukrainians.

We think we'll choose atomic weapons from door number three, please.

That option has been denied to them through the US and Israeli efforts and many other reasons.

And I mean, one is the Russian scientists who are helping them were pointedly going slow because while it serves Putin's interest for Iran to be building a nuclear weapon, it does not serve Putin's interest for them to have a nuclear weapon.

So there are you have to realize that Iran is at the center of the world stage China has an interest Russia has an interest.

It's not just the US versus Iran But that's a one side and I've probably thrown enough things on the table But if they can figure out how they can stay in power and have peace they will take peace And it seems and this is incredible to me, but it seems that everyone I'm talking to in the administration is

has sort of given up on the idea of regime change.

The people of Iran have not.

The question Washington is answering, which is an incredibly stupid question,

is well why haven't the iranian people risen up and demanded democracy and two reasons one democracy may not be the desired outcome of the majority of people they may want a different form of government uh secondly they did try that and 40 000 of them were killed in two days

The regime is willing to do its version of Tiananmen Square every single day until the people go home.

And that's why they haven't risen up.