And now for additional perspective on the ceasefire in today's developments, we get two views.

Barbara Leif was U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and was the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Biden administration.

She's now a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute.

That's a think tank in Washington, D.C.

And Michael Doran was senior director for the Middle East on the National East Institute. That's a think tank in Washington, D.C. And Michael Doran was

senior director for the Middle East on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush

administration and is now a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Hudson Institute with a welcome to you both.

Barbara, we'll start with you. How confident are you that this ceasefire, such as it is, this fragile truce, can hold?

I'm very worried.

I think a lot of people are worried, above all, the folks in the Gulf.

I spoke to several senior Gulf officials today.

They all termed the arrangements as fragile.

One said it was less a ceasefire than it was a fragile, a fragile

truce, but that the prospect of escalation was clearly there. It did give time, which was good.

But another official worried about the fact that this dispute over whether Lebanon was in or out of the agreement was clearly a point of

volatility. What about that, Michael? The fact that the U.S. and Iran, the negotiations are so far

apart, what are the prospects that they can come together? It really depends on how much the

Iranians are hurting and how badly they want this deal, I think.

And it's really hard to know.

They're clearly trying to pull Lebanon into the deal,

and perhaps that's one of the reasons why they aren't letting ships travel freely through the strait.

Maybe it's part of the reason why they continue to hit the Gulf states today.

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