It's a reminder that this is a very difficult time,

That's the new struggle of our time, and we have to frame it that way to understand what we're contending with and why it's so important for us not to fail.

We cannot afford to soften these conditions.

It's a formidable task,

Successful diplomacy is an alignment of objectives and means.

You don't have any communication between the Israelis and the Iranians. You have all sorts of local triggers for conflict. Having countries act on a hair trigger - where they can't afford to be second to strike - the potential for a miscalculation or a nuclear war through inadvertence is simply too high.