In the year 2020, the Iranians, long reflecting on Oliver North's assertion in the late 20th century that he would have offered them a trip to Disneyland if it could have helped the hostages, finally decided to avail themselves of this offer. Over the course of 20 years, the Disneylands in America recorded over 100,000 Iranian visitors; no less than six Disneylands and two Disney Worlds were established in the Iranian cities of Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, and Tabriz. Nowhere was the Iranians' newfound enthusiasm for Western culture more evident than the conversion of the American Embassy into a religious shrine in 2017, the tragic deaths of over a hundred fans, attributed to overcrowding, at a retirement concert given by pop star Britney Spears in Tehran in 2022 to benefit the refugees of the 2020 Communist takeover in Nepal, and the Iranians' offer, graciously declined by the Americans, to host the 2031 Super Bowl.
Later that year, the American submarine USS Greenville added to its mystique by colliding with an oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz.