Do the Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast boat shenanigans in the Gulf signal a fractured leadership? Or is it a very weird good cop-bad cop signaling (Ayatollah signals one thing, and has Guards signal something else)?

Either way it just comes off as odd and indicative of a regime that's not yet serious about behaving like a big boy in the region.

The Iranian navy, according to my CENTCOM contacts, interacted with our ships normally prior to the weird show of farce by the Guards, and that makes you wonder about the right hand not having a clue about the left one.

Whether it reflects disunity or disingenuousness doesn't really matter. The Ayatollah made it clear just like Khomeni did with Carter: no deals possible with the U.S. until the current devil leaves office.

But even then, expect such shows of farce to pick up even as any detente emerges: if you're a leader, you have to show your people that any opening to America must be accompanied by troublemaking that the revolution is alive and well.

Remember: only Nixon goes to China.

Why do it with naval forces (like grabbing the Brit sailors a while back)? The seas are a great place, and a relatively safe and fungible one, to do this sort of signaling: both the FU! stuff and the "hey, hiyadoing!" stuff.

So it bears watching, this dynamic.