U.S. Fixation on Nuclear Deal Let Iran Loose on the Middle East

The United States has dropped the ball on Iran. Had Washington come up with a comprehensive strategy to address Tehran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, the spreading conflict between Iran and its proxies on the one side and Israel and its allies on the other might have been prevented. Today’s escalating conflict in the Middle East—which on April 13 saw the first-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran—is not least the result of an inconsistent, shortsighted, and overly compartmentalized U.S. policy toward Iran for more than a decade.

Since the first administration of…