Ali Akbar Dareini, a researcher at the Tehran Center for Strategic Studies, stated that Iran is not seeking war. Iran is the victim, and the US and Israel are the aggressors. Now, Trump is effectively tearing up the memorandum he himself signed. US military action has pushed the situation back to its pre-memorandum state and could trigger an escalation "out of control." Dareini points out that Iran may choose a horizontal war, operating throughout the Middle East, because while Iran does not want war, it cannot tolerate small-scale military strikes targeting the infrastructure it relies on to control the Strait of Hormuz.