EDITORIAL: U.S. needs to exercise restraint in its dangerous game against Iran

The United States is showing no intention of halting its threats against Iran, a major country in the Middle East.

Washington’s ill-conceived actions to impose military pressure and economic sanctions on Iran are raising tensions between the two countries, creating a touch-and-go situation.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration should immediately cease resorting to imprudent intimidation tactics and start serious dialogue with Iran.

An armed conflict between the two nations could cause immeasurable damage to numerous people and countries.

Trump, the commander in chief of the U.S. military, recently made an incredibly thoughtless revelation. He said he had ordered a military strike against Iran but called it off just “10 minutes” before the beginning of the military operation.

It is unclear exactly why Trump thought better of the military action, but it appears true that he decided on a retaliatory attack shortly after Tehran's downing of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone. It is a spine-chilling fact.

We need no history lessons to understand how a reckless military action could compound a dangerous situation and make things uncontrollable.

Trump claims he does not want a war with Iran, but the actual situation is so volatile that an accidental military clash could occur at any time.

Earlier this week, Trump announced additional sanctions on Iran, targeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders, immediately after he expressed his willingness to hold talks with Tehran over its nuclear program without preconditions.

Trump seems to be trying to extract concessions from Iran by employing a combination of hardball and softball tactics.

But many countries are casting a cold eye on the Trump administration’s moves because it is Washington that has been responsible for creating this dangerous and precarious situation in the first place.

The Trump administration has unilaterally pulled the United States out of the multilateral agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and deployed aircraft carriers and bombers to surrounding areas in saber-rattling moves.

The recent attacks against oil tankers including one owned by a Japanese company near the Strait of Hormuz occurred against this backdrop.

The U.S. government has blamed the attacks totally on Iran and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting over the matter. But there has not been broad international support for the Trump administration’s case against Iran.

Trump has created tensions in the U.S. relationship with Iran by using military pressure and is now offering talks in an apparent attempt to score diplomatic points. He has also used this risky tactic with North Korea as well.

But it is hard to fathom what kind of effects it will produce in the Middle East, including Iran.

European countries are exploring ways to avert a full-blown security crisis in the Middle East. Senior officials of the countries that signed the Iran nuclear deal excluding the United States will gather in Vienna on June 28 for talks to discuss a framework for economic aid to Iran to help the country maintain its calm.

Preserving the multinational agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which the United States has turned its back on, should be a starting point for international efforts to defuse the situation.

One crucial challenge now facing the international community is how to maintain and enhance multilateral frameworks to tackle a range of global issues, including trade friction and harmful climate change as well as the situation in the Middle East, without support from the United States.

From this point of view, the Group of 20 summit being held in Osaka will test the collective will of world leaders to maintain multilateral cooperation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is presiding over the meeting, needs to lead debate on international efforts to ease the tensions between the United States and Iran despite the issue’s sensitive nature while urging Trump to exercise self-restraint.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 26