Six Months In, Iran Appears Stronger and U.S. Goals Unclear

Trump’s replacement of a military war with a heightened economic one is not expected to alter Iran’s strategy, while further impoverishing its people. A man holding an Iranian flag in an apartment destroyed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran earlier this year. Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times Steven Erlanger, based in Berlin, has covered Iran and the diplomacy around it for many years. Still, six months after the U.S. and Israel launched massive airstrikes on Iran, the conflict drags on. The Trump administration has replaced its military war with an economic one, but the result is likely to be no different, analysts said, with a lack of American clarity about goals, a decline in American credibility and a strategic defeat.

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