After U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech on Monday explaining the United States' new policy toward Iran, it's easy to understand Washington's dissatisfaction with the multilateral agreement to cap Iran's nuclear ambitions. It now seeks nothing less than the transformation of the Iranian regime and its behavior, and is apparently encouraging the Iranian people to overthrow their government. To merely set out those objectives reveals the folly of the Trump's administration's policy.

After President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the world waited to see what he would offer in its place to discourage Tehran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions. Pompeo's speech was the U.S. alternative, and it is breathtaking in its sweep. He identified 12 items that the U.S. wants from Iran in any agreement. They range from acknowledgment of Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon — which Tehran denies ever wanting to do — to a halt to uranium enrichment. Pompeo demanded full access to all locations where clandestine research is suspected to occur and an end to all ballistic missile tests. All hostages must be released, and Tehran must withdraw all its forces from Syria and end its support for rebels in Yemen. All this must be agreed in a treaty, rather than fixes to the JCPOA.

If Iran agrees, then the U.S. would lift all sanctions, restore full diplomatic and commercial relations with Tehran and give it access to advanced technology. If Iran fails to do so, however, Pompeo promised "unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime ... the strongest sanctions in history." As a result, Iran would be "battling to keep its economy alive." If Iran refuses to moderate its behavior in the region, the U.S. "will track down Iranian operatives and their Hezbollah proxies operating around the world and we will crush them." One European observer suggested that the U.S. was asking "for everything but conversion to Christianity and reads more like a demand for unconditional surrender than an actual attempt at negotiation."