For 16 months, President Donald Trump has pursued a policy toward Iran known as "maximum pressure," beginning with the United States' withdrawal from the nuclear accord secured by President Barack Obama under which Iran stopped advancing its nuclear weapons program.
This maximum pressure was not enough to bring Iran into line. Now, having ratcheted up the pressure so high, Trump's options to deal with a new and drastic escalation this past weekend are badly limited. Military retaliation is one option, but the destabilization that follows could be devastating. Another path must be found.
The nuclear deal was imperfect, allowing Iran to continue funding terrorism and conduct proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. But the 2015 agreement, which included China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany as signatories, provided a foundation from which Iran might have been persuaded to pursue better behavior in return for fewer economic sanctions.
