Fox News: "President Trump just spoke to our John Roberts a moment ago. He says he is now considering renewing Project Freedom, but he says this time around the US guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz would be just one small piece of a larger military operation."

Told @AJEnglish: No amount of economic coercion or military force will compel Iran to capitulate to maximalist US demands. Trump is therefore left with two bad options: escalate a war he cannot win, or accept a compromise he cannot sell. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/...

Told @lemondefr: The only thing Project Freedom will succeed in doing is collapsing the ceasefire. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Told @NYtimes: At every point when pressure hasn’t delivered the intended result, Trump sought a new tool of coercion which he believed would magically conjure victory, but pressure without an open door is an exercise in futility. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/w...

Told @NikkeiAsia: Iran appears to be using alternative export routes such as rail transport via Afghanistan, but that capacity is insufficient. The blockade is clearly putting pressure on Iran. asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/ir...

Told @abcnews: The Iranian calculus is that the time pressure on them is measured in months, whereas for the United States, it is measured in weeks. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

Told @NYT: Many IRGC affiliated voices are now openly saying that the failure of Iran has been that it was too shy about aligning itself with China & Russia. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/u...

Told @The_NewArab: Rather than establishing a stable equilibrium, this ‘No War, No Peace’ limbo is best described as escalation management with live ammunition. www.newarab.com/analysis/no-...

Told @MSNOW: This is not a contest in which one side must blink first; the challenge is to choreograph a simultaneous blink by both sides. www.ms.now/news/two-mon...

Told @Newsweek: Moscow would play an important role in any solution for the Strait of Hormuz that would require international recognition. www.newsweek.com/iran-heads-t...

Told @CNN: President Trump seems to believe that the US blockade on Iran is working and will bring Iran to its knees in the coming days, if not weeks, and therefore he can finally get Iran to surrender to his terms. edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/w...

Told @WSJ: This cease-fire is inherently unstable. At sea, neither side is deescalating so much as testing the limits of coercion. As long as the double blockade stays in place, every interdiction, warning shot or ship seizure could trigger conflict. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Told @NYT: “Mojtaba is not supreme; he might be leader in name, but he is not supreme the way his father was. He is subservient to the Revolutionary Guards because he owes his position and he owes the survival of the system to them.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/w...

Both Russia and China are keen to exploit the Iran war to sap U.S. power, gain intelligence on U.S. military systems, and erode the U.S.-led order. And so far, both countries are succeeding. Read my latest with @CSIS’ Jon Alterman. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Told @NYT: The Iranians measure the timeline in months for themselves, and in weeks for the Trump administration and the global economy. They think Trump can’t tolerate the strait remaining closed for another few weeks. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/w...

Told @FT: Pakistan’s whole-of-the-system approach to mediation helps with creating consensus in Iran, but their inexperience means they rarely come up with creative ideas and their close ties to Iran’s adversaries makes Tehran suspicious. www.ft.com/content/eb22...

Told @WSJ: The mixed messaging from Tehran on the status of the Strait is more a reflection of a truly incongruous U.S. stance than infighting in Tehran. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Tracking US-Iran talks for better part of two decades: Breakthroughs aren't irreversible, stalemates aren't unbreakable, each side thinks it's reasonable and the other isn't, nothing is agreed until everything agreed, and if you get that far you still need implementation.

Told @WSJ: They Iranians drive a hard bargain but often fail at demonstrating flexibility when they must. And that results in squandering more opportunities than gaining ground in negotiations. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Spoke to @carolynbeeler - @theworld about the fragile two-week ceasefire brokered between the US and Iran. theworld.org/segments/202...

Spoke to @France24_en about the reconfiguration of power within Iran. www.france24.com/en/pakistani...

Told @nytimes: Tehran was now likely to double down on its support for Hezbollah, long a central pillar of its regional strategy, making a quick end to the fighting in Lebanon unlikely. This is a game of endurance. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/w...

Told @CNN: Given the degree of regime paranoia, the repression is going to be much harsher than was the case in the past. This is a wounded regime, and if it survives, it is not going to give an inch to its population, at least not anytime soon. edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/m...

Told @ABC: Trump has lost control of events in Iran. abcnews.com/video/131747...

Told @Reuters: Tehran understands its ability to drive world energy markets through its chokehold on the strait is much more potent than even a nuclear weapon. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

As the #Iran war stretches into a second month, a campaign that may have started with hopes of quick and decisive wins now leaves the U.S. has three options: Escalation, degradation, and negotiation. My latest for @nytopinion 👇 tinyurl.com/hexfnyje

Dans @lemondefr: Avec Khamenei, on a aussi tué la fatwa contre l’arme nucléaire. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

Told @nytimes that the regime has been turning out its supporters in public squares throughout the country. Those crowds are actually growing bigger and bigger. Many Iranians who dislike their rulers have come to oppose the war. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/o...

Told @WSJ: “The question at the heart of this war was never whether Iran could be wounded. It was whether coercion would produce capitulation. It hasn’t.” www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

It was a pleasure to join @RaviReports to discuss Iran's evolving war strategy and the Islamic Republic's internal dynamics. foreignpolicy.com/live/ali-vae...

Spoke to @FRANCE24 about how military escalation risks triggering systemic regional and global consequences, while diplomatic pathways remain constrained by deep mistrust, asymmetrical expectations, and the absence of credible guarantees. www.france24.com/en/as-us-pur...

The US & Israel hold escalation dominance in the Iran war. But Tehran seeks to shift a contest of firepower into test of endurance, wearing out defenses, raising costs & leveraging geography into bargaining power. W/ @ProfessorPape in @ForeignPolicy 👇 tinyurl.com/2tkbk4kp

Told @WSJ: That system [of patronage] will make it very hard to convince those who profit from it to turn against the regime. Millions of people get benefits from their loyalty to the regime. They don’t want to lose them. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Told @NBCNews: The U.S. and Israel are fighting a war aimed at weakening Iran, while Iran is fighting a war to survive. www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/o...

Dans @lemondefr: Il est très peu probable que l’Iran accepte une réunion de haut niveau sans que les Etats-Unis ne fassent au préalable une concession majeure en sa faveur.

Spoke to @IChotiner @NewYorker about what concessions Iran would want in any negotiations to end the war, whether the U.S. and Israel have the same objectives in Iran, and why an off-ramp - let alone a permanent peace - may be so hard to find. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Told @WSJ: Ghalibaf has proven to be a cautious man in the past. If he is to become Iran’s Delcy Rodríguez, he has to alienate some other members of the Revolutionary Guard who might seek to constrain him. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

I'll join @ForeignPolicy's @RaviReports on Mon to discuss the one-month record of the Iran War and the path ahead. foreignpolicy.com/live/ali-vae...

Told @Politico that the Trump administration has been exchanging messages indirectly with Iran through the governments of Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Told @WSJ: @araghchi has always been an implementer. Not somebody who was used to shaping policy.

Told @FT: When it comes to the Strait, these are less ad hoc reactions than longstanding playbooks Tehran has kept on the shelf for roughly 40 years.  giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I told @amanpour that the Iranian leadership is nowhere near the brink of collapse. www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/t...

Spoke to @USATODAY about the complex history between the U.S. and Iran. www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...

Is the U.S. repeating a century-old mistake in Iran? I told @ezraklein @nytimes that Western-backed “short-term gains” often lead to unintended consequences.

“🇺🇸has not thought this through. It’s not aware of the long tail of events, about how short-term victories, even if they are achievable — & at this point in the conflict, I’m not even sure of that — sometimes come back to haunt you down the road.” @alivaez.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...

It was a pleasure joining @ezraklein to explain how Trump plunged into war with Iran as if firepower were enough, forgetting the oldest rule of conflict: half the battle is knowing your enemy.  www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...

Told @Reuters: The U.S. had entered the war unprepared, driven by a lot of wishful thinking and not a lot of well-thought-through strategies. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Told @Telegraph: I think Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the last supreme leader of Iran. If Mojtaba survives, he is not going to be in the same commanding position. The leader is no longer supreme. It is the Revolutionary Guards who are running the show. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

“Yet in the rubble of war, the IRGC, the very institution most isolated from the international order may prove the most capable of inheriting the state”. My essay for ⁦‪@nytimes‬⁩ www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

“This is Israel’s ultimate objective [in Iran].’ Crisis Group’s Iran Project Director Ali Vaez joined @mehdirhasan.bsky.social to discuss Trump arming Kurdish separatist groups to destabilize Iran and the very real threat of state collapse that Israel wants. zeteo.com/p/ali-vaez-t...