Rory Stewart

Of course, as we found out with Brexit,

You could talk to one group of good British friends and they could be like, no, no, no, no, no.

You know, all these Brexiteers are maniacs.

And you talk to another group of British friends and it turns out 52% of people are voting for Brexit.

Again, if I was to, you know, let's say I was an American journalist interviewing you about Nigel Farage.

you might be a bit tempted to be like, he's an idiot, nobody likes him, nobody supports him.

But you see the basic point, that part of the problem when we're talking to Iranians is, who are you talking to?

Are you talking to somebody from a wealthier, more educated background living in a city?

And those people have hated the regime for 40 years.

Are you talking to someone in the kind of villages that I was walking through,

which are poor, conservative, nationalistic, propagandized, who traditionally have been the base of the regime?

Are you talking to ethnic groups?

One of the things we need to

think about is that there's these persistent rumors that Trump and the CIA have been flirting with the idea of arming the Kurds.

The Kurds are less than 10% of the population of Iran.

This is predominantly a Persian country located up in the northwest, on the western edges of the country.

That would be a terrifying thing to do.

I mean, the Kurds have been very badly treated by the Iranians, terribly oppressed, but the idea that arming a ethnic group and starting a civil war... I think he's backing off that.

And everyone brings a sigh of relief.

So I was listening to Today program this morning, and oil prices down because Trump has said – it was extraordinary Trump communication –