The Middle East is today as close to a broad regional war as it has been in decades. There are many explanations for this tense reality but one force casts a shadow over all of them: Iran. Iran has decided that it has more to gain than to lose by pursuing an aggressive policy directed against Washington and its allies in the region. This new and dangerous reality results from one factor above all: the collapse of any coherent U.S. policy toward Iran.
Consider the failure of Washington’s current approach. Since President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, U.S. policy toward Iran has been one of “maximum pressure.” The number of sanctions against Iran rose from 370 under Barack Obama to more than 1,500 during the Trump administration, making the country the most sanctioned on the planet. While the other partners in the nuclear-deal negotiations — European powers, Russia and China — objected, the United States used secondary sanctions to effectively block them from trading much with Tehran. The Biden administration has mostly continued the Trump policy, with a few modifications and relaxations.
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