The escalation comes after months of lull and amid continued productive talks to revive the Iranian nuclear deal.
Three separate days of skirmishes this week between the United States military and reportedly Iranian-backed militias in Syria have brought attention to the US presence in the country, just as indirect negotiations to save the Iran nuclear deal are entering what appears to be definitive. . scene.
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that four militants in eastern Syria have died in US attacks, adding that Washington’s actions are aimed at protecting its forces from attacks by Iranian-backed armed groups in the region.
“I led strikes on August 23 to protect and protect the safety of our personnel … and to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iranian-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities,” Biden said in a statement. to the US Congress in connection with its decision to start hostilities.
Iran denies that the groups involved are backed by Tehran or that the targets were linked to it and has urged US troops to withdraw from Syria.
Biden said the attack was on a facility used by the groups for logistics and ammunition storage in retaliation for raids against the US and its allies in the region.
Three US servicemen were also slightly injured Wednesday when armed groups fired rockets at two military bases in northeast Syria, according to US Central Command, adding that US forces have killed four suspected militants in retaliation.
Jean-Loup Samaan, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Singapore, said the recent US raids look more like an exchange of views than a significant military escalation.
“If you follow the statements of the US government, so far the logic does not seem to be escalation, but the restoration of some kind of status quo between both sides,” Samaan told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think the idea was to link the events in Syria to the current nuclear talks, rather the opposite,” the analyst said.
“It also reminds us that the deal in question will not solve all the issues before us, as we saw back in 2015 that the deal did not affect other regional issues,” he added.
An escalation between the two sides could jeopardize negotiations to salvage a nuclear deal between major world powers led by the US and Iran.
Talks to restore the deal have intensified in recent months, more than four years after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal, which aims to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in exchange for lifting sanctions against the country.
As part of the negotiations, the parties exchange amendments to the so-called “final text” of the deal.
US domestic politics
Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran, believes that the recent escalation in Iran is related to US domestic politics ahead of the country’s upcoming midterm elections.
“Biden wants to be seen by the American political class and people as a strong leader until the coming [mid-term] elections, and also because we are now close to a nuclear deal,” Marandi of Tehran said, adding that the attacked forces are in the country with the approval of the Syrian government to fight the ISIS group (ISIS).
In addition to fighting ISIS, the militias that fought in support of the Syrian government played an active role in defeating the Syrian opposition across vast areas of the country.
Marandi added that the “illegal U.S. attacks” appear to have been calculated as the reported damage they caused was limited and therefore did not affect ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
“US troops are trying not to escalate the situation without much damage or cost, which also shows that this move has more to do with domestic politics than with regional issues,” Marandi said.
The 2022 US midterm elections will be held on November 8. Candidates will compete for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate.