Opaque nature of US-Iran shadow war: Are they 'dancing their way out of a minefield' toward a deal?

François Picard welcomes Peter Apps, Global Defence Commentator, who writes a bi-weekly column for Reuters on national security, conflict, international affairs, and technology. Rather than casting the current state of US–Iran tensions as a binary shift between war and peace, Apps outlines a more fluid and volatile reality, where ceasefire and escalation unfold simultaneously: “both (conflict and negotiations) will keep running.” At the heart of this crisis, the Strait of Hormuz emerges not only as a critical chokepoint for trade and global shipping, but as a battleground of narratives and perception, where “both sides are trying to make it as opaque as possible.”

May 5, 2026 - 03:00
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Opaque nature of US-Iran shadow war: Are they 'dancing their way out of a minefield' toward a deal?
François Picard welcomes Peter Apps, Global Defence Commentator, who writes a bi-weekly column for Reuters on national security, conflict, international affairs, and technology. Rather than casting the current state of US–Iran tensions as a binary shift between war and peace, Apps outlines a more fluid and volatile reality, where ceasefire and escalation unfold simultaneously: “both (conflict and negotiations) will keep running.” At the heart of this crisis, the Strait of Hormuz emerges not only as a critical chokepoint for trade and global shipping, but as a battleground of narratives and perception, where “both sides are trying to make it as opaque as possible.”

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