Rory Stewart

And they're now managing to manufacture their own drones.

And it turns out they can manufacture them without Iranian backing.

Furthermore, the Houthi, who are their proxies in Yemen, reminded people they can still shut that down.

So they did not achieve the objective on the proxies.

The regime was toppled in terms of the top people, but the regime is still in place.

building up massive missile bases, pushing ahead with a nuclear program.

And the problem is it's the hardliners who've won because every Iranian will have concluded

The one thing that saved them was not being nice, being moderate, negotiating.

The only thing that saved them is that they buried their missiles a long way underground and they were able to disrupt the Straits of Hormuz.

And the Revolutionary Guard has been completely vindicated, narrowly in their view, that actually what stops regime change is being armed to the teeth and refusing to cooperate.

It was signed up to in the JCPOA.

And in fact, there were moments when Ayatollah Khamenei suggested that he thought it was un-Islamic to have a nuclear weapon in the first place.

Yeah.

So I think the answer on Iranian people is 90%, 85, 90% of Iranians absolutely hate their regime.

They think they're a bunch of violent, corrupt people.

theocratic people who've locked them in a horrible, isolated world.

And they would be hugely relieved if this regime went and Iran could become a normal country.

They're totally fed up with the Revolutionary Guard trying to turn their whole country into a crusade against Israel and the US.

And they think this nuclear program is mad.

And they think that this regime has invited war and horror.