Two weeks ago President Trump wrote a personal letter to Iran’s supreme leader in the hope of starting talks over Tehran’s fast-advancing nuclear program. He followed that gesture by publicly warning Tehran of possible military action if a deal couldn’t be reached.

Next came a new round of economic sanctions on Iran’s oil industry. Finally, this past weekend he authorized airstrikes against targets in Yemen that are allegedly controlled by the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia.

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Mr. Trump’s unpredictable strategy to contain Iran’s missile and nuclear technology has set Washington and Tehran on a collision course that carries the potential for a wider Middle Eastern crisis. If he is serious about brokering a deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program, his administration needs to back away from the current escalation.

It’s clear the coercive element of the campaign is not working. Tehran is now further from the negotiating table and Iranian leadership is increasingly defiant about engagement, describing the White House’s framework for talks as capitulation or else.

Mr. Trump’s letter was publicly rejected by both President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. “The insistence of some bullying governments on negotiations is not to resolve issues,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to Iranian state media. “Talks for them is a pathway to have new demands, it is not only about Iran’s nuclear issue.”

They may have spurned Mr. Trump’s overture, but Iran’s foreign ministry said this week that it would issue a response.

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