James Clapper: “The bigger issue, of course, is potential -- as you alluded, potential compromise of some very sensitive sources and…”

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's very probable he'll use chemical weapons at some point.

it's a question of time. It's not if, it's when we have some sort of confrontation that we're going to have to respond to, the NATO will have to respond to.

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.