Biden’s inaugural speech focused mainly on healing domestic rifts and a new kind of politics at home. But he also signalled a return to engagement with the outside world.
Much will depend on Iran’s response to what it sees as Israeli and US provocation, including the November assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
How Donald Trump is portrayed in Iran’s popular press.
EPA-EFE: Abedin Taherkenareh
Biden and Trump are like night and day on foreign policy, and American global engagement would change radically under a Biden presidency. But actual Mideast policy might show only cosmetic changes.
With a nuclear deal set to expire, ongoing tensions in the region and an uncertain US presidential election, there may soon be an increase in hostilities in the Gulf region.
As president, Trump has cultivated close relations with autocratic leaders while distancing the U.S. from its traditional allies in Europe and Asia.
Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images
Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In 2016 Trump promised to ‘shake the rust off America’s foreign policy.’ Four years later, it’s clearer what that looks like: a US that sits on the sidelines of world crises and collaborations alike.
Mike Pompeo: on his own on Iran.
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Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Some of the major events in US-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations’ views, but others presented real opportunities for reconciliation.
Protesters during a demonstration in front of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran on Jan. 12.
AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Although neither side apparently wants conflict, tensions remain over the presence of US troops in Iraq and Iran’s decision to walk away from part of the 2015 nuclear deal.
An atomic energy exhibition in Tehran.
Inspired by Maps/Shutterstock
Given the perils of direct confrontation with the US, the most likely recourse for Iran may be to mobilise its proxy militias to attack American assets in Iraq.
Mourners at the funeral for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani burn Israeli and U.S. flags.
Hamid Vakili/NurPhoto via Getty Images
It’s very dangerous to assume that Iran will not escalate the crisis further, much less that the US could limit any violence that might ensue.
Iranian worshippers attend a mourning prayer for slain Iranian Revolutionary Guards Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Jan. 3, 2020.
ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images
Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
President Trump’s Iran policy took a dramatic turn when the US killed Iran’s top military commander in a drone strike. To avoid war, one foreign policy scholar says Trump has to reverse his stance.
Iran’s nuclear deal is hanging in the balance.
By Stuart Miles/Shutterstock
How policy has shifted back and forth since 1945 over the fine line between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.
This week’s attack on Saudi oil facilities appears to be the latest effort by Iran to escalate tensions in the Persian Gulf to push back on the US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions campaign.
Pavel Golovkin/EPA
Iran’s goal is to sow discord and inflict pain on energy markets, while avoiding crossing a threshold that prompts retaliation from the US. This is a fine line to walk at the best of times.
Ships and boats sailing toward the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed
A fifth of the world’s oil travels through the narrow waterway.
President Hassan Rouhani came to office with an olive branch, but his hard-liners rivals now appear to be setting the political agenda in Iran.
Iranian Presidency Office Handout/EPA
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani staked his political fortunes on bringing Iran out of isolation. Now, it appears he’s losing control to hard-liners in Iran.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani (right) inspects the country’s nuclear facilities in April 2019.
Iranian Presidential Office/EPA
Iran has announced it will breach the limits on uranium enrichment agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal, after the US turned its back on the agreement. What does that mean for Iran’s nuclear program?
New sanctions heading Iran’s way.
Kevin Dietsch/EPA