Trump's Various Tactics to Pressure Iran Only Prove US Failure

TEHERAN – After deploying nearly all of its instruments of pressure—ranging from sanctions and displays of military strength to political coercion—Donald Trump’s renewed threats against Iran reveal a strategic impasse in Washington rather than American power.

According to a report by Mehr News, cited on Wednesday (15 July 2026), over the past five months Donald Trump has tried almost every form of pressure against Iran.

These have included repeated threats of military attack, an increased United States military presence in the region, backing for a 40-day war, heightened political pressure, and attempts to impose a naval blockade.

All of these measures shared the same objective: to force Iran to retreat from its strategic positions.

However, developments on the ground show that not a single one of these options has achieved the outcome Washington desired.

Now the American President is once again speaking of the possibility of launching a military strike against Iran—an option that previously yielded no advantage for the United States and, according to many Western analysts, holds little prospect of success in the future.

In this context, John Mearsheimer, a leading international relations scholar and professor at the University of Chicago, has questioned the effectiveness of the American military option.

In his view, the US government has so far been unable to explain how a new military strike against Iran would produce results any different from those before.