Iran and the United States remain locked in retaliatory pressure campaigns that now view the coronavirus outbreak as just the latest battleground.
and the United States remain locked in retaliatory pressure campaigns that now view the outbreak as just the latest battleground.
At the same time, the U.S. is now withdrawing troops from Iraqi bases, redeployments it describes as pre-planned even as Trump alleges Iran plans “a sneak attack” against them. The current tensions can seem trivial, compared to the pandemic, which has infected at least 1.9 million people worldwide and killed over 119,000. This perception has been helped by mocking social media posts from the U.S. State Department and a former leader of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seemingly backing the fringe idea of California seceding from the U.S.
While the U.S. says medical and humanitarian aid remains exempt, Human Rights Watch said American laws as written affect Iran's access to crucial equipment, “including ventilators, CT scanners, decontamination equipment and full-mask respirators.” Meanwhile, international firms remain leery of running afoul of U.S. sanctions even for authorized transactions with Iran.
That bolsters suspicions of behind-the-scenes talks between intermediaries, particularly over the release of U.S. prisoners and other Westerners. Iran's judiciary acknowledged ongoing prisoner-swap discussions on April 6, without elaborating. Then Tuesday night, armed men boarded a Hong Kong-flagged tanker ship off the coast of Iran near the strait, holding the ship for a short time before releasing it. Suspicion immediately fell on the Guard, though Iran did not acknowledge the incident.
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