by the conflict in the middle east between israel and hamas. undoubtedly, too, it has sucked up the attention of the biden administration. what effect do you think it is having on america s wider national security and strategic interests? well, clearly this is having some considerable effect. and we ve seen, of course, that president biden has linked the two together, both ukraine and israel, not just for the purposes of trying to get military support and financial aid through the us congress, but also because he does see a linkage here and i have to actually underscore that there is one and it does come in the form of russia, but also of iran. i mean, i think perhaps stepping back from all of the horrors that we re seeing on the ground on a day to day basis and looking at the broader geopolitical perspective around this, we actually can see the ways that now the actions in gaza and israel and ukraine are clearly linked. because russia has been increasingly dependent on iran