Dennis Ross is a counselor and a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for

Near East Policy.

For more than 12 years across multiple administrations of both Republicans and Democrats, Dennis played

a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

He joins us today to talk about U.S. policy toward Iran.

I don't want to put the Iranians in a position where they have no choice but to respond.

Unless we convince them that something has changed, they're going to continue down this path.

And my fear is we'll end up seeing a war that may start with the Israeli striking

Iranians but quickly becomes a regional conflict and that's the last thing we need right now.

We'll be right back with that discussion after a quick break.

I'm Michael Morrell and this is Intelligence Matters.

You're listening, add free on 1-3-plus.

Dennis, welcome to Intelligence Matters.

You've been on our show before and it's very nice to have you back.

Michael, it's always a pleasure to be with you.

Thank you.

Dennis, as you know, I want to talk about Iran, particularly the Iranian nuclear program,

but I want to ask you a couple of questions before we dive into that.

The first one is the current ongoing fighting between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Is causing that?

Are we heading toward or are we already in a third in Tafada?

How are you thinking about that?

...