As the U.S. and Iran battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, Nick Schifrin discusses the latest developments with Alan Eyre and Miad Maleki. Eyre was part of the Obama administration's negotiating team for the Iran nuclear deal and is now at the Middle East Institute. Maleki was born and raised in Iran and is now at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Nick Schifrin:
Alan Eyre, is the U.S. government rightfully responding?
Alan Eyre, Middle East Institute:
I think the U.S. government unfortunately is strategically flailing. Yes, it is in fact the case that Iran insists on operational control of the Strait of Hormuz because it doesn't trust the U.S.And so it sees control of the strait as strategic leverage. And that's why, when it looked at that very ambiguous article five of the MOU, it decided to press its point, because, for Iran, the whole game is strategic deterrence and preventing future attacks. And it thinks it can only do that by insisting it control the strait, which is why it was attacking those ships hugging the Omani coast that were trying to leave the strait with U.S. air cover.
