It is good that Iran is facing economic hardship:
Mounting economic hardship is fueling persistent unrest in Iran, now characterized by labor strikes across the country and anti-regime sentiment. New sanctions stemming from President Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal may well exacerbate already difficult economic conditions.
Now may be the right time to exert maximum pressure on the regime in an effort to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table.
But the simply atrocious 2015 deal that Trump withdrew from this year did nothing to reverse or even slow down Iranian support for terrorism and violence in the region; nor did it stop Iran from pursuing long-range ballistic missiles that really need nuclear warheads to make sense.
And we have no way of knowing if the flimsy and limited inspections by the IAEA under the 2015 deal have slowed down Iranian nuclear weapons work even as the deal itself strengthens basic Iranian nuclear technology and engineering skills.
So why would we seek another deal expecting it to work better on nukes and have a different effect on other issues with Iran?
It would be better to let Iran sink under the weight of their economic hardships and expanded spending on foreign adventures that run counter to American interests.
Maybe if a deal with North Korea is rapidly concluded, it would be possible to negotiate a new agreement with Iran. But that deal with North Korea would have to include coming clean with America on all the nuclear and missile cooperation between Iran and North Korea up to now.
