00:00Let's sort of go back a couple of steps. I mean, how did a strike by Iran on U.S. interests in this region lead to such a rapid de-escalation, do you think?
00:11Well, actually, I think that that was part of the choreography of this, because one of the things that is being evident in Iranian doctrine again since the revolution is that they've always had to drink from the chalice of poison when they're threatened.
00:25They did that in 1980, and they did that in 1988 indirectly when they had to end the Iran-Iraq war.
00:33But part of the catalyst for that was the American operation Praying Mantis, which just about destroyed the Iranian fleet after the Iranians were going to lay some mines, which nearly blew up an American destroyer.
00:47So there's always been this notion of drinking from the chalice of poison. The key thing from the supreme leader's side, therefore, has been what is the survival defiance spectrum?
00:58And of course, it seems to have gone down to the survival side at the moment rather than the defiance.
01:04It's also part of Iranian doctrine that retaliation should be deemed to be legitimate and proportionate and should be accepted by the West or the Americans in this case.
01:15That is why it satisfies Persian honor and why it was choreographed and therefore was not to be high casualty in the same way that they did the same approach in 2020 on a couple of bases in Iraq after the killing of Soleimani under Trump's first regime.
