Terrible as the Gaza war’s toll has already been, it would get worse if sustained fighting were to erupt between the U.S. and Iran or its Middle East allies.

So much of the commentary suggests that a forceful U.S. military operation inside Iran would scare the ayatollahs straight. Yet the evidence in support of that conclusion is weak to nonexistent. Iran has retaliated to previous U.S. and Israeli attacks repeatedly.

What’s the most reliable pathway to curbing the Iran-fomented violence that followed the Gaza war? It’s to bring that conflict to a quick end.

The Biden Administration and Congress must double-down on diplomacy and pursue carefully calculated deterrence efforts to avoid further escalation and bring a negotiated end to the war in Gaza.

We applaud the Biden Administration for its tireless, skillful diplomacy that used Iran’s own foreign-sequestered sovereign funds to secure the return of these US citizens.

Washington and Tehran have reached an accord bringing U.S. hostages home from Iran and unfreezing Iranian assets. The agreement has much to recommend it, despite what critics say.

The freed Americans include U.S.-Iranian dual citizens Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Sharqi, 59, both businessmen, Morad Tahbaz, 67, an environmentalist who also holds British nationality, and two others who have yet to be identified.

Five Americans imprisoned in Iran and five Iranian nationals detained in the U.S. will be released, the administration told Congress.

The state of Iran's nuclear program and international diplomacy after Trump's withdrawal.

Iran’s recent willingness to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency to increase transparency on its nuclear program could help open diplomatic space for additional steps toward decreasing tensions and rolling back Iran’s nuclear advances.

By Joel Rubin

Five years after Trump quit the JCPOA, efforts to revive it have given way to obituaries. But it is not entirely clear yet what the United States sees as the path forward.