For more than two decades, Washington’s Iran policy has revolved around one overriding objective: preventing the Islamic Caliphate of Khomeinism in Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. That assumption no longer appears to define American strategy.

If recent reports accurately reflect the Trump administration’s direction, the next phase of the conflict will not be centered on uranium enrichment or even missile sites. It will be aimed at something far more consequential — the Shia regime’s capacity to govern. If that assessment proves correct, the United States will have crossed the most significant strategic threshold in its confrontation with Tehran since the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979.