"Nothing"? Are you being serious?
Iran's entire modern history is defined by colonial exploitation for their material wealth, and you think that aligning them with their greatest oppressor would stop the violence? I'm in awe.
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.