Summary
U.S. President Donald Trump angered Iran with his speech on refusing to re-certify the nuclear deal, but Tehran is unlikely to walk away from the deal in retaliation. Brinksmanship aside, Iran needs to sell its oil on the international market as allowed by the atomic accord.
In particular, Trump's insistence on using the term "Arabian Gulf" in place of the "Persian Gulf" riled the Iranian public.
Since Trump's speech, which puts the burden on Congress to decide the nuclear deal's fate, Iranian officials have threatened that they too could decide to unilaterally walk away.
The posturing belies the fact that Iran can ill-afford to risk the deal, which lifted crippling international sanctions in return for restrictions on its nuclear activities.
Iran's stock market and hard currency markets remain unchanged.
This year, the Navy has recorded 14 instances of what it describes as "unsafe and/or unprofessional" interactions with Iranian forces, the most recent coming in August, when an unarmed Iranian drone flew close to a U.S. aircraft carrier as fighter jets landed at night.
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