"Bushehr—the nuclear power plant—is closer to Doha and Dubai than it is to Tehran," says Council Lester Crown Senior Nonresident Fellow Rachel Bronson. "Our allies would be at risk . . . should there be a leak."
Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Paul Poast argues that multi-military involvement in the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East has reached the threshold of a world war—though not "at the level of World War I or World War II."
The US blockade of Iran's coastline raises concerns about a potential confrontation with China and others who have managed to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri tells Bloomberg. "This is very unchartered territory."
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deployment of religious rhetoric in the Iran war has come under increased scrutiny. What happens when the line between political conflict and religious warfare blurs?
"I want to know who the nuclear experts are that are going," the Council's Rachel Bronson said of the US delegation. "We're sending over novices at the moment, and that should give us considerable concern."
"The US has achieved a type of tactical victory," Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Paul Poast says. "But the terms that are on the table right now would put Iran in a position to be able to control the Strait of Hormuz and actually be in a stronger position than they were even prior to the war."
"Ceasefires are incredibly precarious," says Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri. "But it does give at least a pause—at least a window—to try and push forward more of a negotiation, especially on the question of the nuclear conditions."
While the Trump administration's proposed agreement would curtail Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, it would not touch the real drivers of the Islamic Republic’s power.
