December 26, 2025 | The National Interest
On US-Iran Policy, There Is No Path Out of the Desert
Iran’s setbacks in 2025 should not lull US policymakers into thinking that Tehran is finished with destabilizing the region.
December 26, 2025 | The National Interest
On US-Iran Policy, There Is No Path Out of the Desert
Iran’s setbacks in 2025 should not lull US policymakers into thinking that Tehran is finished with destabilizing the region.
Excerpt
President Donald Trump’s newly released National Security Strategy (NSS) is right-sizing the Middle East for American foreign policy thinking, claiming it is no longer a “constant irritant.”
Throughout 2025, the Trump administration pursued a combination of sound domestic energy policy, hard-nosed regional diplomacy, and prudent military action to bring about this reframing. Nowhere is this clearer than with Iran, which is only mentioned three times in the entire document.
Unsurprisingly, one of those references is to Operation Midnight Hammer, President Trump’s historic use of force against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The operation—which came near the end of the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran this summer—brought about what no combination of negotiations, deals, sanctions, or sabotage was able to achieve: the first cessation of all uranium enrichment at known Iranian nuclear sites since 2006. As a reminder, this is what numerous UN Security Council Resolutions sought, and failed, to attain.
But post-Operation Midnight Hammer, one question lingers.
Behnam Ben Taleblu is the senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC.