After months of piling pressure on Tehran, the
United States is seeing an unexpected new variable -- the novel coronavirus, which has taken a substantial toll not just on
Iran but inside its government.
US policymakers are asking whether deaths within the regime are widespread enough that they could alter decision-making -- although a deadly rocket attack Wednesday in
Iraq, which
Washington blamed on Iran, showed at least that the cycle of conflict between the countries is not abating.
COVID-19, which has infected tens of thousands of people around the world, has hit Iran's government unusually hard, with a number of senior politicians and officials killed or infected by the disease including a vice president, a senior adviser to the foreign minister and a powerful cleric.