what is the state of us Iranian
relations delicate and complicated last
year the Obama administration and the
Iranian government negotiated a historic
deal in which Iran agreed to restrain
its nuclear program in return for an
easing of economic sanctions that deals
meant to go into effect later this week
but there are hardliners in both the US
and Iran who are opposed to the deal and
the two sides militaries operate in
close proximity to each other in the
Persian Gulf which creates the risk of a
clash just such an altercation has taken
place to u.s. Navy vessels were taken
into custody by the Iranians after
apparently straying into Iranian waters
before being swiftly released what's the
broader geopolitical context there's a
state of war and disorder all over the
Middle East which makes maintaining the
improvement in us-iran relations very
difficult Saudi Arabia a key American
ally has poisonous relations with Iran
and the Iranians are also supporting the
Assad regime in Syria and Hizbollah in
Lebanon who the Americans are bitterly
opposed to on the other hand Iran and
the US are in a tacit alliance in Iraq
as they both fight to dislodge the
jihadists of Islamic state so is the
Iranian nuclear deal secure not
necessarily it's clear that both
President Obama in the US and President
rouhani and Iran are committed to the
deal but they're not fully and
controlled the political process in
their own countries or of events on the
ground in the conflict-ridden Middle
East over the next year an accident
could easily happen that derails the
deal