AU.S. Navy helicopter and patrol ship stopped an Iranian vessel from capturing an American sea drone in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, marking the latest high-profile clash between the two nations as they negotiate a possible return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
The Biden Administration and Iranian officials have exchanged written responses in recent weeks in pursuit of a deal that would lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s advancing nuclear program. Diplomats from the U.S., Europe and Iran are discussing the details of the potential plan in hopes of restoring the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Even as a deal may be coming within reach of American and Iranian diplomats, however, a string of recent military and other confrontations between the two nations threatens the progress. In the past month alone American forces and Iran-backed militias have traded attacks inside Syria that have left three U.S. service members wounded and four militants killed.
Iran-linked threats have also recently struck closer to home. On Aug. 10, the FBI indicted an Iranian national for a plot to kill former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Five days later, author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in New York by a suspect allegedly motivated by the late-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 religious decree, or fatwa, to kill the writer.