Trita Parsi

This Strait of Hormuz is important to Asian countries and to European countries.

It is not crucial to the United States any longer.

The entire Middle East is no longer crucial to the United States.

This is one of those problems that we have here in the United States in which we are overextended in a region that doesn't have a vital interest

for US national security any longer.

We're not in need of the oil from the Middle East.

The rest of the global market is.

And they were not willing to step up when Trump asked them to step up militarily and help.

And I have full understanding why they didn't.

It would have been a losing proposition.

And Trump has essentially said, look,

This doesn't bother or concern us any longer.

And as a result, if the rest of the world has a problem with Iranians charging a fee, then the rest of the world will have to deal with it.

You know what the rest of the world is going to do?

They're going to acquiesce to it.

They're going to negotiate their own arrangements with Iranians because the fees are nominal, are very, very small.

And the idea of either going to war with Iran or just paying the small fee is a no-brainer for the vast majority of countries.

If the United States were its massive navy,

couldn't open up the straits militarily, what is South Korea or Japan going to do about it?

So I don't think this is going to end up working.