What’s behind Trump’s shift to economic pressure on Iran? Will it work?

More than 23 weeks into the war on Iran, United States President Donald Trump has signalled he would rather rely on squeezing Tehran’s economy than returning to a military offensive, as he had warned he might last week.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway now central to negotiations aimed at ending the war, remains disrupted by Iranian forces as a US naval blockade tight...