The current crisis in the Gulf, ratcheted up by Iran’s seizure of a British oil tanker, is palpably explosive. But it began more than a year ago when Donald Trump, behaving more like the leader of a rogue power than the US, unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal.

That act of vandalism sabotaged a functioning international diplomatic achievement. The Islamic Republic was always going to reply with its own variety of pyromania - and it will continue to do so.

Financial Times