James Clapper: “I don't think, I frankly, personally don't think he should do that. I don't see the intrinsic gain by putting him back…”

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.

The frequency with which they are occurring, tells me that they're kind of in - they realize they're kind of in a jam.

No, I don't. The Chinese setup is that there is a Polit bureau member who is the overseer -- the senior overseer on behalf of the Polit bureau for the entirety of the Intelligence and Security apparatus of China.

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.