Trita Parsi

Certainly some of the hardliners are opposed to it.

They think the US is gonna betray the deal, et cetera, but nevertheless, it is a strong position for them to have that negotiation.

So I certainly think that they should.

And I think they also recognize that at the end of the day, they cannot sustain the situation, the closure of the strait, et cetera, for a very long time without creating problems with other countries such as Russia and China and others who do matter to the Iranians.

The biggest risk of derailment, of course, is from the Israelis.

I mean, Netanyahu has been pushing the United States to go to war with Iran for more than 25 years.

He finally got his wish, but it just didn't end up the way he thought it would.

But he's not going to give up.

And there's plenty of opportunities for the Israelis to derail this, particularly by restarting a war with Lebanon.

At the end of the day, you just need a couple of successful attacks and the whole thing can fall apart.

So if Trump wants to keep this, and I hope he does, and I do think that he's serious, because as you pointed out, he needs to get out of this as well.

It is not sufficient to just have an angry phone call with Netanyahu every once in a while, or to do so in reaction to Netanyahu actually violating some of the US's red lines.

There needs to be consistent pressure on the Israelis to make sure that they don't do this.

And I would go one step further.

Part of the reason why the Israelis would do this is because they believe that if they restart the war, the US has no choice to reenter the war on Israel's side.

If the United States makes it very clear to the Israelis that that equation is over, if the Israelis start a war against not only a deal that Trump has struck, but what I think he hopes becomes part of his legacy, then the US is out.

and the Israelis are gonna have to deal with the Iranians on their own, which I don't think they can do.

Without all of the support of the US, particularly the defensive support in terms of shooting down Iranian missiles that are heading towards Israel, the Israelis cannot tolerate a war with Iran for very long.

So if they know that they cannot drag the US in, their incentives for sabotaging the deal will also diminish because the outcome that they're looking for is no longer secured in any way, shape or form.

So I think Trump has that ability, and I think proactively he should make it very clear.