Opinion America’s failed approach to Iran can’t really be called a strategy

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.

And what has been the result of the Trump-Biden policy of maximum pressure? Freed from the constraints of the nuclear deal, Iran has massively advanced its nuclear program. It now has 30 times more enriched uranium than the deal allowed, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The deal created a year-long “breakout time,” the period necessary to produce the nuclear fuel needed for a weapon. Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tehran was one to two weeks away from breakout capacity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/iran-strategy-trump-biden-failure/