Afghan researcher says Iran made three strategic errors in confronting US and Israel

An Afghan researcher, Davud Muradyan, has argued that Iran made three strategic mistakes in managing its confrontation with the United States and Israel. Muradyan said the first error was treating the conflict as a conventional war and interpreting military encounters through traditional war logic, when Iran's real threat comes from adversaries seeking to weaken the country through economic pressure, intelligence operations, cyber warfare, limited airstrikes and a gradual attrition strategy rather than occupation. He identified the second error as misreading the unusual weight Iran placed on U.S. President Donald Trump's personal image and sense of victory. According to Muradyan, presenting recent agreements as an Iranian victory would portray Trump as weak inside the United States and make it harder to sustain the diplomatic process. As the third mistake, Muradyan said Iran has eroded the Strait of Hormuz's deterrent value by using it as a pressure tool in every crisis. He argued that frequent threats to close the waterway have reduced its strategic weight as leverage against adversaries.