With no clear diplomatic option or any real prospect of returning to a pressure-based strategy, the Biden administration doesn’t appear to have any realistic alternatives ready. Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear and missile programs advance apace.

“Biden’s caught between a commitment not to let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon and the reality that Iran is already a nuclear threshold state,” Carnegie Senior Fellow Aaron David Miller, who interviewed Malley, told me.

The Biden team now belatedly seems to realize that Iran is in no hurry to return to the deal. Politically, that saves President Biden the cost of selling the outcome to a skeptical Congress. But security-wise, the outlook is grim. Telling the world that you are working on “options” and having meetings with allies are not sufficient.

The Biden team must quickly decide — and then announce — what it actually intends to do to prevent Iran from ramping up its nuclear program. The United States needs to act before Iran reaches the point where Israel responds and draws the United States into a conflict. This new strategy will surely have diplomatic components, require European buy-in, necessitate security adjustments and include measures to enhance regional deterrence. All these things take time and can’t wait any longer.