The unravelling of America’s Iran policy began with a single act of demolition. When Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May 2018, he dismantled a framework that — whatever its imperfections — had extended Iran’s nuclear breakout time from two to three months to well over a year. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation estimated that, after the US withdrawal, the breakout time would collapse to just a couple of weeks. The deal was gone; the danger was not. What replaced it was a posture dressed up as strategy: “maximum pressure,” a campaign that squeezed Tehran while simultaneously narrowing Washington’s own options. Iran’s proximity to a nuclear weapons capability gradually increased, and the Trump administration’s approach got the United States no closer to its stated goals.

Each subsequent move deepened the trap. Diplomacy was hollowed out. Military posturing raised the stakes without offering a roadmap. European and Gulf allies — sceptical of being dragged into a conflict they had not designed — resisted pressure to fall in line. The president who had promised America would act alone found himself dependent on partners he had spent years alienating. “Maximum pressure narrowed US options,” analysts at the Baker Institute noted, leaving Washington holding a hand it could neither play nor fold.

The recklessness was not accidental. It had a co-architect. Netanyahu has, since the late 1990s, sought to drag the United States into a war with Iran, a fact the Biden........

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