The United States appears to have delivered one of its most forceful and structurally disruptive messages to Tehran in years — not through public diplomacy, not through sanctions, but through a quiet, high‑stakes communication routed through Doha, reportedly carried by Christopher Markwood, a publicly identified senior executive at the CIA. While his operational role remains unverified, the mere plausibility of such an envoy underscores the seriousness of the message.