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Biden has no easy answer to the Iranian challenge

Successive US presidents have struggled to deal with Tehran’s ambitions in a volatile region. Biden has to reckon with not only the risk of a Middle East war but also its impact in an election year.

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A man riding a motorcycle past a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles in service in Tehran on April 19.

A billboard depicting missiles in Tehran on April 19, the day explosions echoed in Iran’s central province of Isfahan.

PHOTO: AFP

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The language of the Middle East is equal parts swaggering bluster and equal parts Arabic, Farsi, Turkish or Hebrew.

If recent events are any indication, it is a language that Iran has mastered.

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