There isn't a country on Earth, other than Iran—and maybe Oman, which flirted with it—that is in favor of what Iran is doing in the straits.

The Chinese are against it. The Russians are against it. Everyone is against it.

It's pretty clear that at the outset of hostilities in the conflict, they had delegated decision-making to field commanders.

And so oftentimes, field commanders had delegated authority to act on, let's say, pre-operational planning that had already been put in place.

And so, unlike our system, where perhaps the president, the secretary of war, or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is directly making orders and decisions, in their system a lot of decision-making at the tactical level—like which ships to hit and so forth—is being made at the commander level.

The Russians are less than happy about our engagement in Armenia.

I think there is evidence that they would like the current president to lose his election as a result of this growing relationship with the U.S.

If what we get out of NATO is the ability to use bases, and then we have members of that alliance that are basically denying the use of those bases in a contingency, it calls into question the entire thing.

We are not begging Iran for anything.

Iranians might be begging.

Iranian people would make a deal tomorrow if it were up to them.

The Supreme Leader and the IRGC are a bit more immune to pressures.

I am confident that the Americans and the Iranians are sincere. They want a ceasefire and they want to see the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

But I am not sure about the intentions of Israel.

They don't have any intention of seeing stability in the region.