New tensions may threaten U.S. troops
WASHINGTON >> Tensions escalated between the United States and Iran on Monday as the Trump administration accused Iran and militias that it backs of threatening U.S. troops, and Iran signaled it might soon violate part of the 2015 nuclear deal it reached under former President Barack Obama.
European diplomats in touch with senior officials in Tehran said Iran would most likely resume research on high-performance centrifuges used to produce nuclear fuel and put restrictions on nuclear inspections in Iran. It would be Iran’s most significant reaction to date as President Donald Trump has steadily increased sanctions.
At the same time, three U.S. officials cited new intelligence that Iran or its proxies were preparing to attack U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, leading the Pentagon to send an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Persian Gulf as a warning to Tehran.
“What we’ve been trying to do is to get Iran to behave like a normal nation,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Finland.
Taken together, the moves by both sides have brought relations between Trump and Iran to a new low after a period of rapprochement that began in 2013 during the Obama administration.
The Trump administration has consistently sought to isolate Iran’s clerical government. One year ago, Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal that was brokered with world powers, and in the last month alone moved to cut off Iran’s remaining oil exports and designated an Iranian military unit as a terror organization.
Iran’s expected suspension of some elements of the nuclear deal appeared to be a response to the aggressive American policies, which were underscored by the announcement of the USS Abraham Lincoln heading to the Gulf.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s government has decided to enforce specific decisions to reciprocate,” reported Iran’s semiofficial news agency, Fars, on Monday, hinting at a coming response to the earlier U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal.