Iran's nuclear program, system and Hormuz stance are sovereign rights

This position holds that Iran's nuclear programme, its political system and its stance on the Strait of Hormuz are sovereign rights that no outside power may curtail. Its advocates describe the Islamic Republic as a state under assault, call outside calls for regime change an imperial war, and describe unrest at home as foreign-instigated, saying the nation stands united.

Iranian voices and outlets carry it. It appears in the broader confrontation between Iran and its regional and international opponents, in the maritime dispute over Hormuz and the Gulf, which it frames as sovereign waters and deterrence, in the debate over leadership succession, in the nuclear programme, in the US-Iran ceasefire and negotiation track and in the protests and repression inside Iran.

The competing position holds that Iran is an illegitimate, existential threat whose nuclear ambitions and proxies justify the pressure of an Israeli-US-Saudi coalition. Recent events show exchanges of fire around the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian claims over the strait and an Iranian proposal for a seven-day ceasefire that would have reopened it, which President Trump rejected, with the strait still closed.