Debate Over Iran Threat Continues

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2019. Pelosi says the U.S. must avoid war with Iran, and she says the White House has “no business” moving toward a Middle East confrontation without approval from Congress.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2019. Pelosi says the U.S. must avoid war with Iran, and she says the White House has "no business" moving toward a Middle East confrontation without approval from Congress. J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2019. Pelosi says the U.S. must avoid war with Iran, and she says the White House has “no business” moving toward a Middle East confrontation without approval from Congress.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2019. Pelosi says the U.S. must avoid war with Iran, and she says the White House has "no business" moving toward a Middle East confrontation without approval from Congress. J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo

Debate Over Iran Threat Continues

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Following Iran’s decision to cease adhering to some of its commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the U.S. withdrew from a year ago, tensions between the U.S. and Iran are escalating. American intelligence officials declassified a photo of an Iranian missile being loaded onto a small boat in the Persian Gulf, which The New York Times reported was the catalyst for the U.S. military’s Central Command to send an aircraft carrier and bombers to the Persian Gulf and for the U.S. State Department to order Iraq-based “nonemergency U.S. government employees” at both the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil to leave the country. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday that he and other lawmakers were not adequately briefed by the Trump administration about the possible threat from Iran,\ and called for more transparency from the White House and intelligence agencies. Associate professor of history and inaugural principal of the Mossadegh Initiative at Northeastern Illinois University-Chicago Mateo Farzaneh joins today’s show for analysis.