James Clapper: “Yes, sir. That's a little bit far removed from where I sit now.”

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

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.

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.

It speaks to Putin's character, and his KGB background, having essentially lawless, mercenary group, a private army, responsible only to him.