His friends cite the Greek Cypriots' recent shelving of plans to put Russian anti-aircraft missiles on their bit of the island, after the Turks had threatened to bomb them, as yet more proof that it pays to hang tough.
After Qom, Iran appeared to back off a bit by agreeing in principle to ship abroad much of its uranium stock (a bomb's worth or thereabouts if sufficiently re-enriched) for reworking to provide the needed reactor fuel.