No deal, no exit: How US-Iran standoff risks fresh conflict

Three months after the United States and Israel staged an attack on Iran, a U.S. blockade and Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz have created a deadlock,

with neither side bending, economic pain deepening and the risk of renewed war rising.



A growing concern among policymakers is not whether a deal is near, but how long tensions can persist before a miscalculation by Washington or Tehran triggers renewed conflict.



Calls for a fresh strike are growing louder in the U.S. and Israel, with some officials arguing that increased pressure could weaken Tehran's leverage and force Iran back to the negotiating table.



"There is one major problem with this theory: We have already tested it, repeatedly, and Iran did not capitulate," said Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher on Iran at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies and former head of the Iran branch in Israeli Defense Intelligence.