Thanks for listening to The Restis Politics. To support the podcast, listen without the adverts and get early access to episodes and live show tickets, go to therestispolitics Time with me, Rory Stewart.

And me, Alastair Campbell.

And today we've done something rather unusual, which actually Alistair deserves credit for,

which is that he said, rather than the two of us answering endless questions on Iran,

we might actually get a genuinely deep Iran expert.

So we've got my friend Kareem Sajadpur, who is himself, obviously, originally of Iranian

descent, but has been the leading analyst at the International Crisis Group and then, again,

more recently, the Carnegie Endowment.

He is somebody who understands Iran very well, but actually perhaps even more, he understands the US debate on Iran very, very, very well.

He is going to be with us as we answer your questions.

And my goodness, we have had hundreds of your questions.

We are absolutely delighted to have you with us, Kareem.

Rory and I have quoted your

work in Foreign Policy Magazine many, many times in recent days or weeks. Let's just kick off with

where we are in terms of the theme of nationalism and Iranian public opinion more generally. Leo,

why are the Iranian people so split in their opinion of this war?

Matea, why do we see so little or no sign of uprising?

Is this Iranian regime control of the rally around the flag effect?

And Iris Seiram asks a similar question.

So let's start with that.

It's great to be with both of you.

And those are very important questions,

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