The 2015 nuclear deal was not just an arms control agreement but a potential engine of social transformation inside Iran - and its destruction triggered the exact radicalization it was supposed to prevent, political scientist Vali Nasr has told Bloomberg. The numbers tell the story: President Rouhani's office estimated the JCPOA would grow Iran's middle class by 35 percent over a decade. Instead, Trump's maximum pressure sanctions pushed 20 percent of that middle class below the poverty line within two years.

The deal's architects - Rouhani, Foreign Minister Zarif - believed that economic success would build the constituency for gradual political change from within, "Hvylya" reports, citing Nasr's interview on the Mishal Husain Show. "Success of that deal was the building block of gradual change inside Iran and gradual change in relationship with the US," Nasr said.

Maximum pressure achieved the opposite on every front. It hardened Iran's leadership, radicalized its politics, and elevated the most hawkish voices. "A poorer society under economic pressure becomes more authoritarian and it becomes more radical," Nasr argued. The moderates who negotiated the deal were discredited, and the hardliners who warned that America could never be trusted were proven right in the eyes of the Iranian public.

Nasr, who worked in the State Department during the Obama administration and helped shape the engagement policy that led to the JCPOA, called the deal's collapse a tragedy. "It was a leap of faith, but it is a tragedy. We will look back at that at one point. It was a tragedy that it was not given the opportunity to prove itself," he said.

The consequences of killing the deal extend into Iran's nuclear posture. Tehran concluded that its two-decade strategy of transparent engagement with the IAEA was a mistake that only invited sanctions and war. The diplomatic path that once constrained Iran's nuclear ambitions has been replaced by a strategic logic pushing directly toward weaponization - the very cruel irony that observers have warned about. Washington may ultimately find itself negotiating a weaker version of the deal it destroyed.

Previously: Breaking 25 Years of U.S. Doctrine: What Trump Really Thinks About Chaos in Iran.