Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Technology in Tehran, tells Al Jazeera that “Iran earns nothing” from participating in the talks any more and “stands to lose a lot”.

Khoshcheshm notes that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the midst of the war shot up oil prices and came to be Tehran’s biggest weapon in the conflict.

“That mounted pressure on Trump at home, and he failed repeatedly to reopen this strait through military means,” he says. “Iran, a vast country, has taken measures to compensate by other means, including activating its land borders.”

The analyst argues that the waterway has been “under Iranian control for centuries, ever since this country was created”.

“This shouldn’t be the other way around after the war, and Iranians will not tolerate that. Iran is not going to take part in the talks unless the US backs down [from the Strait of Hormuz].”