James Politi

Well, I mean, he's clearly getting more frustrated with the lack of a sufficient Iranian response to his plea for negotiations.

One can argue to what extent this is actually an escalation.

The US military is saying that the recent strikes on Iran in response to the downing of an Apache helicopter were done in self-defense.

And they do not mean to break the ceasefire.

So it looks like they're trying to ramp up the pressure on the Iranians to strike a deal.

But new skirmishes really raise questions about how strong the ceasefire really is.

I think it's absolutely critical because the rise in inflation is creating a huge political problem for President Trump.

And every Republican who's on the ballot in the midterm elections in early November, which are really coming up quite shortly, just in a few months,

Petrol prices are up, the cost of living is rising, and this is not what American voters re-elected Trump to do.

In that context, Trump and a lot of Republicans feel the need to get a deal, and he seems to be growing increasingly angry about the state of play.

Well, the Iranians are holding firm in some respects.

Even in response to the U.S.

strikes, they continue to launch attacks against key allies of the U.S.

In the Gulf, the chances of a deal do not seem extremely high.

It's still possible there could be an agreement, but it does not appear that the Iranians are

willing to make some of the concessions on both their nuclear capabilities and on the Strait of Hormuz that the US is looking for.

So it makes for a very complicated picture.

Well, I think we're sort of stuck in this limbo of what I would call, and many others have called, a dirty ceasefire.

It's a ceasefire that has frequent violations, frequent skirmishes, and in which there has been no breakthrough on the key issue of what happens to the Strait of Hormuz.

It would require either a deal, or I think Hawks in Washington would say a more aggressive military action from President Trump