It's Tuesday, May 26, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Over the course of the last several days, as America went into and came out of the Memorial Day holiday,

President Donald J. Trump had been making the

announcement, often on true social, that the United States and Iran might be close to an agreement

that would bring a cessation to hostilities and to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, this has been said before. President Trump has indicated there had been

a moment in which we were close to an agreement with Iran, and that several times in the past,

and it might well have been true. But what we're looking at now is the fact that it is clear

Iran is being recalcitrant in reaching any agreement with the United States that will be on terms

that would be acceptable to the United States and our allies. Israel, of course, being at the

top of the list of the allies involved in this matter directly. But it is clear that it is the

dominant position of the United States that now leaves Donald Trump basically with his

administration in negotiations

with whoever is actually in control in Tehran trying to bring an end of this conflict.

Now, here's how the Washington Post reported the status as of yesterday.

Quote, the United States and Iran have developed a memorandum of understanding framework

that extends the ceasefire 60 days

as the two sides reach a final deal that's put in quotation marks to permanently end the war in

Iran. But in the meantime would result in the Strait of Hormuz being demined and reopened, a senior

administration official said. Now listen to this. The next sentence,

quote, the official, however, said no agreement with Iran had been signed on Sunday. It remains

unclear how binding the current framework is, end quote. Okay, so let's talk about how language works

...