Bangladesh, June 15 -- The announcement by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on June 12 that Washington and Tehran had agreed upon a final text for a war-ending deal was greeted with cautious optimism across a region exhausted by months of confrontation. Yet optimism alone cannot erase the strategic realities that continue to define the Middle East. Even as diplomats spoke of peace, military tensions remained dangerously high. The Strait of Hormuz, one of the worlds most critical energy corridors, remained under Iranian pressure, while the United States maintained restrictions on Iranian maritime activity. Drone interceptions, missile threats and competing political objectives suggested that the path toward peace was far from secure...