Background Briefing with Ian Masters: We begin with the increasing likelihood that the U.S. and Iran will blunder into a war in the Gulf driven by a symbiosis between our hawks and their hawks and an American president who has no credibility both in terms of diplomacy and in making a case against Iran’s attacks on tankers. Joining us is Vali Nasr, the dean of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies who served in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.  We discuss his op-ed at The New York Times, “Trump Might Not Want War With Iran. Without Diplomacy He Will Get One” and the lack of credibility also shared by Trump’s National Security Advisor Bolton and his Secretary of State Pompeo and the skepticism among our allies about the case the Trump Administration is trying to make against Iran over the attacks on the tankers. This in spite of the fact that it appears Iran is playing that dangerous card of attacking shipping as a way to drive up oil prices to remind the U.S. and the Saudis that if Iran can’t get their oil to market because of the economic warfare the U.S. is conducting against them, they can also shut down the Saudis oil output and one third of the world’s oil supply. With Iran days away from exceeding limits on uranium enrichment under the deal Trump tore up as well as holding on to its supply of already enriched uranium that was supposed to be shipped out, another trigger for a war with Iran is waiting to be pulled.