Iran war and Strait of Hormuz stuck in limbo as Trump mulls latest Iranian offer

CBS News producer Seyed Rahim Bathaei in Tehran said Tuesday that from what he can see on the ground, the government remains in full control and that the country is not in a “state of collapse, in any respect.”

President Trump said in a brief social media post Tuesday that Iran “just informed us that it is in a ‘state of collapse,'” without providing further context on who delivered the message or what it was referring to.

“The war will have serious consequences, as we see shortages, high inflation and a lack of supplies. [of some basic goods]However, what some sources outside the country fail to take into consideration is that Iran is accustomed to difficult conditions in all aspects of its economic, social and political life, after decades of international sanctions and tensions with the West, Bathaei said.

Nonetheless, he said it was clear in Iran that while the US naval blockade continues to prevent Iran from exporting its oil and gas, it “cannot be ignored” by the country’s leaders.

Mr. Trump and other senior administration officials have described Iran’s government as deeply fractured and without clear leadership, even saying there had been “regime change” after the assassinations of numerous high-ranking figures, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was named the new supreme leader, but has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began, and is believed to have been seriously injured in the same U.S. or Israeli strike that killed his father on the first day of the war.

But Bathaei said “the question of leadership is not what some people in the West think.”

“It’s a manageable problem” for Tehran, he said, referring to the multiple layers of authority built into the Islamic Republic system over 47 years.