On June 20, 2019, President Trump authorized and later reversed his approval for a U.S. air and missile strike on Iranian missile and radar batteries. The strikes were designed in retaliation for the Iranian downing, one day earlier, of a U.S. unmanned aerial surveillance aircraft over the Persian Gulf| The Soufan Center
The roots of the recent U.S.-Iran tensions are the Trump administration’s May 2018 decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA)| The Soufan Center