U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped ?up airstrikes on Iran and threatened broader escalation, but there is little sign that a military strategy that has already failed to extract concessions from Tehran will succeed this time.

With the collapse of an interim ceasefire deal reached a month ago, Trump ¡ª unable to disentangle the U.S. from the unpopular war he started ¡ª finds himself in a bind as he seeks to break Iran¡¯s grip on the vital Strait of Hormuz and bend a defiant Tehran to his will.

While the two sides have so far avoided a return to full-scale conflict, increasingly ominous developments have dimmed hopes of finding an off-ramp anytime ?soon in a crisis that has again driven up global oil prices and sent shockwaves through financial markets.