Suzanne Maloney:

I think the decision to walk away from the deal by the Trump administration was a critical mistake. The president by suggesting that he might in fact jettison the agreement had an opportunity to apply some of that leverage to get some additional pressure on a range of other concerns about Iranian behavior across the region. Instead he chose to walk away from the deal and that has left us in a weaker position. It's created this opportunity I think for the Iranians to themselves have the upper hand really what happens next is going to be decided by Tehran. In my view the most likely outcome from an extended crisis with Iran is one in which they seek to disrupt oil exports or production coming from some of their neighbors around the region because anything that drives up oil prices will help them in terms of their own bottom line at a time of severe economic sanctions and it would hurt the president's political capital in terms of continuing to apply those sanctions or the economic sanctions that we have put on them working.