Donald Trump may be about to cross a line he drew less than a week ago. Barring an Iranian capitulation on nuclear enrichment that no one anticipates, the president is likely to order US bombers to strike Iran’s most hardened underground facility at Fordow any moment now, thus joining Israel’s war against the Islamic Republic.
Once a mere formality, the certification of presidential votes has become a high-stakes period. Cybersecurity chief Jen Easterly warns that the greatest threats to American democracy may emerge between Election Day and certification on January 6, as foreign adversaries exploit partisan divides to undermine confidence and stability.
In the latest example of rising tensions between Iran-backed militias and US forces in the Middle East, a US Navy destroyer on Sunday shot down several Houthi-launched drones that were attacking Israeli commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Joe Biden may be one of the most experienced foreign policy presidents in recent history, but even he might admit that, at the moment, his administration is lacking a coherent Iran strategy.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's stance towards Israel and its Western allies has been nothing if not consistent, says Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour.
On Thursday, Iran said it released five detained US-Iranian dual-nationals into house arrest, and the US has promised to release about $6 billion in Iranian assets currently frozen in South Korea.
Iran now says it wants to return to the nuclear negotiating table with the US. For nuclear weapons expert Kelsey Davenport, that's still the best possible option for both sides because it'll put the breaks on the atomic program and give the Iranians some badly needed US economic sanctions relief. Diplomacy, she says, is always the best way because when the US and Israel have tried cyber-espionage and killing Iran's nuclear scientists, it's resulted in the Iranians doing exactly what they're not supposed to under the terms of the 2015 deal. "All options are on the table [and] those options are on the table, but they're not good options."