Here's how tensions with Iran might affect the U.S.'s ability to fight ISIS

ISIS mural.
(Image credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

The United States' recent actions in the Middle East have been centered around Iran, but as tensions rise between Tehran and Washington, what will become of the latter's fight against the Islamic State?

The New York Times' Rukmini Callimachi, one of the world's leading reporters on ISIS, said that the U.S.'s burgeoning conflict with Iran has been hindering the ISIS front for months now, and that's not likely to change after President Trump ordered an airstrike against Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.