James Clapper: “I really, in the first instance, question the appropriateness of even staging this rally on a day like today with…”

I think right now, they're assessing the administration -- that's the National Security Council specifically, is assessing the impacts of this first round of strikes.

I think the reason they were taken off the list was to provide an inducement or motivation for them to agree to some sort of ceasefire.

Ties with Tehran offer some regional governments a means of staking an independent position on Iran, thereby mitigating its isolation while also attempting to extract Iranian financial aid and investment for economic and social projects.

I think it has more to do with the psychology of Putin, and Russia. And he needs to assure his own people, Parliamentarians, he was talking to, and for that matter, himself, that Russia is still a great power.