Hello, welcome back to Inside Defence.
I'm Shashank Joshi, The Economist's Defence Editor.
The war in Iran has entered its fourth week.
Donald Trump says he's been talking to Iran and has postponed strikes on Iran's power plants for now.
Iranian and Gulf sources deny their negotiations underway.
Iran's leadership has been decimated.
The new Supreme Leader, Majd Abahamenei, hasn't been seen since the beginning of March.
There are few people better placed to make sense of the war in Iran than Sir Alex Younger.
Sir Alex led Britain's secret intelligence service, better known as MI6, from 2014 to 2020.
Before he was C, the codename for the chief,
he spent two decades in the field with postings in Europe, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
He's also a former military officer.
Sir Alex, welcome to Inside Defence.
Thank you for inviting me.
Thank you for helping us make sense of this moment.
I feel the war is at this.
Really important juncture.
President Trump is trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by military means,
through threats against Iranian power plants, and to seek to end the war through diplomatic talks.
I think what people are struggling with, what I'm struggling with,