Alex Ward, co-host of the Worldly Podcast, Iran shot down a US drone today.

Things seem to be getting kind of hostile here.

Yeah, this is quite honestly the worst escalation between the US and Iran and years, and this

is arguably the worst foreign policy crisis of Donald Trump's presidency.

Where do we begin to think about the events of the past, whatever month and a half, two

months?

So I think before we get to those specifics, we need to actually get to two things that

happened in May 2018.

The first thing was Donald Trump withdraws the US from the Iran nuclear deal on May 8,

2018.

The many reminder what the Iran nuclear deal is is the US and a bunch of other countries

of European powers, Russia, China, would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran putting

limits on its nuclear program.

Thank you.

There was more, but that's the bottom line.

Withdrawing from that deal, then ratchet up tensions.

Next later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gives a speech, which he effectively says,

now that we've left the Iran deal, here's how the US and Iran can reset relations.

First, Iran must declare to the IAEA full account of the prior military dimensions of its

nuclear program, and permanently and verifiably abandon such work in perpetuity.

Second, Iran must stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing.

This includes closing its heavy water reactor.

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