Trita Parsi

But I think from Trump's perspective, it was the opposite because Trump came in as president and said, I'll talk to anyone.

I'll talk to Kim Jong-un, I'll hang out with the former founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria.

I'm capable of talking to everyone because I am strong, because I am stronger than all previous presidents.

Yeah, he had Tim Cook from Apple to the White House.

Exactly.

But in the inverse of that, of course, is that if someone else is not talking to you and are unwilling to talk directly to you, that's not a sign of their strength, that's a sign of their weakness.

Because Trump again believes that talking to other people is a show of strength.

So inadvertently, I think the Iranians actually reinforced Trump's own view of them as being weak by refusing to talk to him.

And then obviously there's no guarantee that the war could have been avoided had they done so.

But I think that if there was anyone who could have actually convinced Trump, this is gonna be a war,

They're not going to capitulate.

You might want to rethink this.

And you might want to rethink the entire idea that you're going to get them to surrender at the negotiating table or anywhere else.

The only ones that ultimately could have done this would be the Iranians themselves.

And they stood up that opportunity.

They had plenty of opportunities.

And I think that, again, it reinforced Trump's view that they're weak.

And as a result, he thought that he could have this war over with.

It's deliberately opaque.

That's on purpose.