Rear Admiral (retd) Faisal Shah is an honorary research fellow at the Institute of Maritime Affairs, Islamabad, and can be reached via [email protected].

It was interesting to watch Mr. Steve Witkoff’s interview with Fox News on Feb 21, 2026, mentioning that President Trump was curious why Iran had not capitulated in the face of US military buildup against it. He further stated that President Trump wanted the Iranian leadership to come and say they did not want a nuclear bomb and that they were ready to do what the US wanted them to. There are numerous reflections emanating from such statements by Mr. Witkoff, which perhaps are not the norm in the prelude to any armed conflict between the countries. Is it just another straw in the pressure tactics that the US and its allies are employing against Iran, or is it, in fact, ignorance on the part of the Iranian leadership towards the gravity of the situation? 

Iran, under decades of sanctions and isolation, is perhaps a closed society less understood by the people outside, whose knowledge is primarily based on the Iranians who had fled during the Islamic Revolution. Understandably, they are averse to the current regime and project it negatively. It is for this reason that every time there are protests inside Iran on whatever pretext, it is believed worldwide that these will result in regime change. It has not happened so........

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