I'm John Bachelor. I welcome my colleague of many years, Mary Kissel, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,

former senior advisor to the Secretary of State many years in Asia for the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

And we concentrate on the State Department piece because we're looking at the fog of diplomacy in the Middle East.

The Secretary of State, Mr. Rubioio making remarks in these last 24 hours about the

situation in the Straits of Ormuse, there is no certainty whatsoever from any of the remarks

in the release from Pakistan, but there is said to be an agreement, and perhaps it's mostly

agreed upon by both or all parties. We don't know how many are in the room.

At the same time, it is my memory of diplomatic history that 90% of every document is easy.

It's that 10% that becomes the quandary that leads to conflict. Mary, a very good evening to you.

We do not know what's going on in

Pakistan. We do not know the shape of the investigation, but we do have, from Wall Street,

you're very familiar with when they give a warning out. And their warning is we have 30 days

to get this solved to we reach a tipping point. Do you account for that, Mary? That's not a threat.

That means that their concern is the oil and the fertilizer and the other supplies coming out of

the Persian Gulf are not yet in shortage, but they're about to be. Good evening to you, Mary.

Good evening to you, John. It's always great to be with you. The answer is yes. I think that that deadline reflects the challenges faced by the global economy, particularly poor nations in accessing key goods that had been held up by Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz. It also reflects President Trump's wish to get this

conflict resolved in a speedy manner. I think the outstanding question is whether or not the

president will accept terms that Iran has broken in the past, namely a commitment to curb its

nuclear activities. I hope he doesn't do

that. But he's also dangled out the chance that he would restart kinetic military operations.

I think that's a better path, frankly, because I don't see any sign as yet that the tactics or

the intent of the side from Tehran have changed.

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