Trita Parsi

And this has just really just boosted their confidence.

And that is gonna make the Islamic Republic much stronger, at least temporarily, than it was before February.

And even if they try to reduce their dependency, first of all, they were not dependent on Iranian oil.

They stopped buying Iranian oil 10 years ago because of the US sanctions.

So they were not buying a thing from Iran.

South Korea has been in the Iranian market for so long.

It's only during this last 10 years that they were completely chased out by US sanctions.

Samsung was so massive.

Oh, no, no, no.

I mean, they need Iran because Iran controls the outlet to the Persian Gulf.

Exactly.

So now you don't have to have any dependence on Ivanian goods.

Exactly.

But you still need Ivan.

And I remember I was in some meetings, these were not formal government, but several people who were in and out essentially.

And this question came up and I was actually quite stunned the degree to which a lot of people actually thought the Iranians will not close the strait.

They thought that that would be a suicidal move by them.

And I had to remind them that they will see this as an existential threat.

So all of the patterns we've seen in the past in which they responded politely, they didn't even respond to certain attacks.

You have to set that aside because if they're actually faced with an existential threat,