Mehdi Kheratian, a TV and radio expert, issued a warning about what he called the “West-oriented current,” saying that if the Islamic Republic comes to the Bab al-Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz, not only will its “levers” be taken away, but “they will hit Tehran again with a trench-buster.” He attributed this process to the “UAE lobby” and called for “a reasonable escalation of tensions” and for reaching an “affirmative plan for a post-war order” with the help of Beijing and Moscow; according to him, otherwise, with “unpreparedness,” the Islamic Republic “loses.”