Ruhollah Rahimpour, a journalist and political analyst, said that referring to a new round of the United States and the Islamic Republic’s reciprocal attacks on oil tankers has put Tehran’s “tankers against tankers” approach into a strategic dilemma; continued attacks could lead to the loss of assets needed to revive the economy, and stopping the attacks would mean losing control of the Strait of Hormuz.

He also considered Abbas Araqchi’s recent contacts with regional officials, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, to be more of a “rescue diplomacy” and said that Tehran is trying to prevent the formation of a regional coalition against itself and to find a way out of the cycle of attack and retaliation.