India, April 12 -- There are multiple reasons for the failure of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad. If the reporting on US President Donald Trump's Hormuz ambitions is even partly accurate - there are reasons to believe they are - the American insistence that Tehran agree to a "joint venture" with Washington to manage the Strait of Hormuz may have been one. Tehran's refusal to abandon its nuclear programme could be another.

President Trump may have wanted to close a real estate deal on a waterway he has no business controlling, and that should be free for all nations. Given Trump's inclinations, Hormuz may have been a bigger roadblock than Iran's nuclear programme. To be clear, what Washington reportedly wanted from Iran was not merel...