What is the price tag for convincing Iran to back down?

The US is desperately trying to keep a lid on the heightened tensions in the Middle East, following Israel’s assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Hanieyeh in Iran’s capital, and the airstrike on a Beirut suburb that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the gambler and accused war criminal, seems determined to escalate tensions with Iran to the brink of war, largely to keep himself in power.

Iran, meanwhile, has made it very clear that war is the last thing it wants. But after Israel’s attack on its embassy in April that pushed it to launch hundreds of retaliatory drones as a deterrent against further attacks, Iran finds itself again in the spotlight. 

What wi ...