involvement in those explosions. now, iran officially is denying any involvement in the attacks, accusing the united states of, quote, warmongering. the japanese owner of one of the tankers also refutes one of the u.s.'s assertions, saying some sailors onboard saw something flying towards the ship just before the explosion. it's all contributing, though, to increasing tensions in a part of the world already on edge. with me now is ambassador chris hall, former u.s. ambassador to iraq and south korea. apparently they only put him in hot spots. he's now an msnbc diplomacy expert and professor at the university of denver. ambassador hill, always good to see you. let me start here. >> pleasure. >> there seems to be a lot of weird players here. there's a divide inside iran about how aggressive to be. there's this theory that some in iran don't want to escalate, but the revolutionary guard does. there's this idea that the saudis, they're ready for this. they're ready for this