It's unholy. I'm Uni Levy in Tel Aviv.

And I'm Jonathan Friedland in London.

And it's 8.30 a.m. in Washington, 3.30 p.m. in Israel, 4 p.m. in Tehran.

We are, it seems, on the brink of war again.

Four weeks after President Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran, these are the latest developments.

The U.S. President significantly raised the temperature in the Gulf with his decision to send warships to escort trading ships crossing the Hormuz Strait. This coming after weeks of Iran essentially refusing to sit at the negotiation table, Iranians responded to the U.S. escalation by firing missiles at the United Arab Emirates, not at Israel.

Here to break all this down is Dr. Suzanne Maloney, one of America's foremost authorities on Iran,

the vice president and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institute,

focusing on Iran and Persian Gulf Energy.

She's advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on Iran policy and the person we

always turn to to know what's actually going on inside Iran and towards Iran.

Suzanne, thank you so much for talking to us on unholy today.

I'm always glad to be back with you, you and Nathan.

Very, very good to see you again.

And as we're speaking, the defense secretary, Pete Higgseth, alongside General, the man they call Raising Kane,

a briefing reporters on where things are. But one thing I've just wanted to pick up on that

you only mention there about this decision of the US president to send warships to escort

shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

We're going to get into the politics of it, obviously,

but just purely as a practical matter, and you know the geography as well as anybody,

just purely practically, is this something that can be done?

Can the United States or any foreign actor open up the straight by force in this way?

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