- [Narrator] After more than a dozen ballistic missiles
were launched at two military bases in Iraq
where US troops are stationed,
President Trump addressed the nation.
- No Americans were harmed in last night's attack
by the Iranian regime.
Iran appears to be standing down.
(crowd shouting)
- [Narrator] While Iran's leader threatened more attacks,
he stopped short of threatening
further direct military action.
- [Narrator] Iran's latest attack appeared calibrated
to avoid further escalation in the conflict with the US
and for now, both sides seem to be backing away
from further military strikes.
But in a tit for tat conflict
that has been going on for more than 40 years,
Iran has shown its resilience to US pressure
and on top of a sophisticated
conventional military capacity,
Iran can draw upon unique strengths
to inflict geopolitical stress onto the Western world.
- So I think what's unique about Iran in the Middle East
is it can draw on three powerful ideologies.
First, it has Persian nationalism.
Iran is one of the oldest countries in the world
and Iranians are incredibly proud.
Second, is Shiite nationalism.
Irans are unique in that they're Shiite, not Sunni,
and they are able to draw on that Shia nationalism
and make alliances with their Shia brethren
in countries like Iraq and Lebanon.
Third is the ideology of anti-imperialism.
This allows Iran to build ties with countries
like North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba,
punch beyond just beyond its Middle Eastern allies
and align itself with countries
in the anti-imperialist world.
No country in the region has these three powerful ideologies
which they can utilize.
- [Narrator] Iran also has a network of allied militias
and militant groups across the Middle East
that could be enlisted by Tehran.
- If you look at the entire Shiite world,
let's say from India to Lebanon,
all Shiite radicals are essentially willing
to go out there and fight and kill and perhaps even die
for the Islamic Republic or Iran.
Iran realized that it could harness
its Shia co-religionists in neighboring countries
to almost act as an arm of the Iranian military
and so they've done what I call
the McDonaldization of Hezbollah,
taken that Hezbollah franchise in Lebanon
and exported it to places like Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The Iranian allied Shia militias have enormous power,
but not that much accountability.
Now that's started to change
over the course of the last few months.
We began to see popular protests in Lebanon and Iraq
which became increasingly anti-Iranian in nature
and I think the assassination of Qassem Soleimani
has really, unfortunately for the United States,
shifted the conversation away from Iranian misdeeds
and mismanagement in places like Iraq and Syria
and it's shifted the conversation
to the misdeeds of the United States.
- In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum
to begin reinstating US nuclear sanctions
on the Iranian regime.
- [Narrator] While much of Iran's crude oil production
has been off the international market since 2018,
it's seen an increase in sales
of refined products like gasoline,
making up for some of the loses from sanctions.
- It hasn't really been able to exploit
its enormous energy wealth
because of its isolation and economic sanctions,
but that oil and energy wealth
has allowed Iran to essentially turn its back
on much of the global economy.
It's not as reliant as other countries
because it has this free flow of resources
coming through its oil and gas sales.
- [Narrator] Another advantage
is the hold it has over the Strait of Hormuz,
a vital shipping route connecting the Persian Gulf
to the Arabian Sea
where some 20% of the world's oil supply passes.
In July last year, global markets were roiled
when Iranian forces seized a British flagged oil tanker.
- Iran's effective control over the Strait of Hormuz
has always offered it a wildcard
because it can always threaten to shutdown that passageway
which could really bring the global economy to a standstill.
The less the global economy relies on fossil fuels,
oil and gas, I think the less strategic
that card is for Iran to play.
- [Narrator] Following the death of General Soleimani,
Iran said it would no longer comply with limits
on uranium enrichment set under the 2015 nuclear deal.
- What's key for Iran is to restart their nuclear program
in a way that will create international divisions
rather than international unity.
What that means is they're not going to go from zero to 100
and kick out all of the inspectors
and say they're rushing full speed ahead for a bomb,
because they know that will unite the Chinese
and the Europeans and the Russians with the United States.
They wanna move more deliberately, go from zero to 20,
which will split the international community
because countries in Europe, Russia, China,
will point to the United States and say,
"You were the ones that provoked Iran."
- [Narrator] On the world stage,
Iran largely stands on its own.
But as history shows,
it knows how to frustrate its enemies
without a lot of resources.
- It's not a country which can hang with the United States
the way that China or Russia can.
It's not a global power, it's a regional power.
But Iran has nonetheless managed to frustrate enormously
the United States going back to the 1979 revolution,
and since then Iran is essentially
the only country in the world
whose official slogan is Death of America.
So, whatever the topic is, whether it's nuclear,
cyber, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,
Iran takes the opposite side of the United States
and so for that reason, it's been a perennial challenge
for US policymakers for the last 40 years.