The Wall Street Journal reports:

The U.S. won’t negotiate exemptions to Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and could try to strike a separate accord excluding Moscow, a senior U.S. official said, a diplomatic effort complicated by an Iranian missile attack on Iraq that sent American troops rushing for shelter.

With one of President Biden’s top foreign-policy goals imperiled, the U.S. official said Washington would start exploring alternatives to the deal over the next week if Russia didn’t back away from its demands for written guarantees exempting Russia from Ukraine-related sanctions that could curtail its future trade with Iran. Such guarantees could undercut the West’s punishing array of sanctions leveled at Russia over the Ukraine invasion.

“I don’t see the scope for going beyond what is within the confines of the JCPOA,” the U.S. official said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that there is no room for making exemptions beyond those.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s top paramilitary force took responsibility for a missile attack early Sunday on what it claimed were Israeli targets. It said the strike was in response to recent Israeli actions in the region, which included an airstrike last week in Syria that killed two of the group’s commanders. [Continue reading…]