Fourth, the U.S. should make clear that it will no longer stand in the way of efforts by its European allies to establish their barter arrangement with Iran or to float the Iranians a $15 billion line of credit. Regime change is a Boltonian fantasy. And the U.S. should make a serious effort to alleviate the suffering that its sanctions have imposed on Iranian civilians.

Fifth, the Trump administration should inform Tehran that the U.S. would be prepared to restore the waivers it revoked to permit Iran’s main oil customers to resume purchases of Iranian oil, but only if Iran agrees to return to full compliance with its obligations under the Iranian nuclear deal. Moreover, under this new arrangement both sides would also agree to maintain these commitments so long as negotiations continue to reach a broader deal.

Finally, as part of a negotiated bilateral agreement, the U.S. and Iran would agree on confidence building measures to lower tensions and reduce the risk of conflict. Most importantly, they would establish a direct channel of communications at the operational level to mitigate the risk of misunderstandings that could trigger an inadvertent conflict. And if Iran is prepared to abandon its provocative military behavior throughout the region the U.S. would agree to start pulling back some of the additional forces it has deployed to the region since June. The two sides would begin a technical-level dialogue to work out detailed arrangements to define that behavior.