Trita Parsi

That can be rebuilt, however.

What they have done that is really difficult to undo.

is that I'm not saying that the system in Iran has necessarily gained popularity.

I don't think the actual support base of that system is more than 15 to 20%.

And then you have 60 or so percent.

15 to 20?

15 to 20.

Oh, it's that unpopular.

Yeah.

60 or so percent of the population that absolutely would like to see a different type of a government, but they're not willing to risk war or revolution over it, they wanna see gradual change.

And then perhaps 20 or so percent of the population that have just so fed up with how this system has been so repressive, so corrupt, so incompetent in many different ways, mismanaging the economy, that they've gone so desperate that they're willing to try almost everything, right?

But what has happened because of this war, which always happens in these types of wars, is that you have a rallying around the flag phenomenon.

It's not necessarily made the system more popular, but the performance of the Iranian military in all of this has made the confidence of the 15 to 20% of the population that do support the system absolutely skyrocket.

It has made them think that, you know, they themselves had question marks about the viability of the system.

It faced so many problems, so many of them self-inflicted.

Many of them also, of course, absolutely a result of the sanctions.

But there was actually a very low confidence in that system in December and January of this year.

That has just completely shifted.

because now they feel that, as you said, they have become a global power.

They have managed to not only resist the attack of two nuclear powers, one of them a superpower, but in some ways they may have come out on top and strategically inflicted a defeat on them.