Trump’s War Didn’t Isolate Iran – It Empowered It | w/ Sina Toossi

All eyes on Tehran: for the first time in the history of Israeli belligerence, Iran has centered Israel’s actions in Lebanon to holding the peace. Sina Toossi, senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, joins BT Live to explain the irrelevance of the “hardliner vs. moderate” framing of Iranian politics today, given the widespread, highly rational skepticism toward Washington’s commitments, while Tehran sees the deal as a test to see if the US will abide by its promises.

Meanwhile, ideological divisions in Washington deepen as Vance and Rubio’s camps fight over how to best exploit the negotiated settlement to a war that was always profoundly unpopular with US voters across party lines, as AIPAC and issues like Palestine and the Gaza genocide become top-ballot domestic issues for 2028. And in the Persian Gulf, Arab monarchies that bore the brunt of Trump’s aggression are seriously reconsidering their interests in a dramatically shifting regional order.

Trump’s war didn’t isolate Tehran – it empowered it. And no one in Washington can agree what to do about it.