Trump's hardline campaign against Iran is failing to check its nuclear ambitions and risking a 'catastrophic' war

Trump's hardline campaign against Iran is failing to check its nuclear ambitions and risking a 'catastrophic' war
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Michael Gruber/Getty Images; Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

  • President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" strategy against Iran is not working and has exacerbated tensions in the Middle East. 

  • Trump's maximum pressure strategy aims to cripple Iran's economy and squeeze it into agreeing to a more stringent version of the 2015 nuclear agreement orchestrated by the Obama administration to keep Iran from building nuclear weapons.

  • Iran is speeding up its uranium enrichment while the West and Iran are at an impasse, strongly suggesting the Trump administration's strategy to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions is failing.  

  • "Iran is not just being emboldened but is being left in some ways to take actions that say they will not be pushed back," Wendy Sherman, who served as lead negotiator on the deal for the Obama administration, told Insider. 

  • Another former US official who negotiated with Iran warned that one slight misstep or misunderstanding on either end could jeopardize the fragile US-Iranian relationship and tilt the two countries to war — which neither side wants.

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  • President Donald Trump's strategy of exerting "maximum pressure" against Iran is faltering as Tehran appears emboldened to stand up against the West and takes steps closer to building a nuclea ..

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