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Depending on what is agreed to during this two-week window, Iran may choose to continue to threaten leverage over the strait, or it might agree to certain concessions. But when you look at the United States and the 15-point plan put forward versus the 10-point plan put by Tehran, the gap between the two positions is staggering. So, how to bridge that gap, and to agree to something that will work in the longer term for a durable security arrangement, I think that is going to be a very, very difficult task in the coming days."

"What the US and the Israelis have shown is that they can dish out enormous damage at various points during this campaign. They've been flying around 900 sorties. That's each an individual combat flight a day. I think the second US carrier is now back on station. So they could hit hundreds and hundreds of targets, over a thousand, in a 24-hour period. They could dish out a phenomenal amount of damage to what remains of the regime's military, although they've been focusing, interestingly, on the Revolutionary Guards and not the regular military. And they could do the same to infrastructure."

Another wider strategic implication that I think the White House must be considering is what these kinds of attacks on overwhelmingly civilian targets would mean for perception of President Trump and the United States inside Iran. We've seen in the past, President Trump has indicated that Iranians respect him, have a high level of admiration for him and the campaign that he is conducting against the Islamic regime. But this kind of attack at this level, that would threaten livelihoods and the ability of ordinary Iranians to conduct their lives, would undermine the argument of winning hearts and minds, to use that phrase. And I think that would under underwhelm Trump's longer term objective of demonstrating that he was trying to do something on behalf of the Iranian people. I think that there will be severe backlash inside of the country, certainly, but possibly across Iranian communities in the United States as well."