[chasil]

If you find something that binds you inextricably with the global economy, then you have power.

Oil is not that thing.

The neon from Odessa and Mariopol was obviously not that thing.

The quartz from North Carolina appears to be an example of that thing. Not absolutely irreplaceable, but inconvenient in the extreme.

Is such a thing found in Iran? If so, that is an alternate path.

That can be people, instead of a raw material.