This week Iranian President Hassan Rouhani marked the 31-year anniversary of the day a US warship in the Persian Gulf mistakenly shot down Iran Air flight 655, killing 290 Iranians. In the same speech he warned that Iran would reduce its commitment to the Iran nuclear deal “in an attempt to save it.”
Whether intentional or not, the reference to flight 655 has parallels and lessons for the present US-Iran crisis, including the centrality of Iraq in US-Iran tensions and the need for diplomatic off-ramps to allow parties face-saving means to step back from confrontation.
