And for analysis, we're joined now by retired Vice Admiral Kevin Donigan. He commanded the U.S.

5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain. He's now a distinguished military fellow at the Middle

East Institute. Thank you for joining us. I want to start with your reaction to President

Trump posting on social media this evening, what he called a complete and total ceasefire between

Israel and Iran.

Yes.

So for those of us around the world that look hard at the Middle East, there's one certainty,

and that's that we're going to be surprised.

You know, we were surprised at the way that Israel started this and when they started it. We were surprised at the way that the U.S. entered this,

and now we're surprised again here because this is just a few hours after this retaliatory

strike on Al-U-Did, we now have this announced ceasefire. And, you know, I think it's a good

thing. Any time you can get a conflict to pause and have a ceasefire, it prevents an opportunity.

So now the question is, Nick was clearly laying out is can we take advantage of that opportunity?

I want to add one more piece.

It's a different Iran now than it was before this started.

Its IRGC is weakened.

Its nuclear capability is degraded to the extent that it will be determined in time.

And as a result, the regime is somewhat weakened from where it was before.

So when you add that to the fact that Syria is now no longer an ally of them, that Hezbollah

has been decimated, that Hamas has been destroyed, and the Houthis are weakened, you can see

that this, the opportunity for maybe a potential change in the Iranian stance is out there,

but time's going to tell.

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