Mark Halperin

The Strait needs to reopen.

Now, just as we don't know how much Iran will give on the Hezbollah question, we don't know how much the United States will give on the Strait.

When I've asked people in the U.S.

government, does it really have to be 100 percent open the way it was before for the United States to engage in the talks in Pakistan?

Not a clear answer.

But what the current state is, is not good enough.

What's Iran's game there?

Why is Iran not living up to what seemed to be a pretty fundamental part of the agreement?

Not clear to my sources, but here's what we do know.

Iran's leverage in these conversations comes from several sources, including having just survived the massive pummeling they took.

But a lot of their source of their leverage now comes from the fact that they keep the strait closed.

And they could open it up maybe a little bit and still have that leverage.

But right now, can't tell you the connection between the likelihood of talks and the degree to which this trade is open.

But there's a correlation there.

There's definitely a correlation there.

Then there's the question of what Iran has said about its willingness to give up its nuclear materials and its nuclear missile and nuclear weapon program.

And the president, I'd say a guy who tries never to be definitive for very long on the same topic if there's some danger of that position, the president, since the ceasefire was announced, he's been pretty clear most of the time Iran can't have nuclear material.

And of course, I know people like to cite the six or seven reasons that the United States entered into this war, but the main one was to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons.

That's the main one.

And yet what you have now is some question.