New Delhi, June 15 -- WASHINGTON - The deal with Iran was barely hours old when Donald Trump picked up the phone with the New York Times and said the quiet part out loud. The man he credited most for helping bring it across the line was not a secretary of state, not a special envoy. It was Vladimir Putin. And Xi Jinping.

The admission, tucked inside a sprawling interview published early Monday, reordered the conventional geometry of American diplomacy in the Middle East. A sitting US president, announcing what his administration is presenting as a historic agreement with Iran, gave public credit to Moscow and Beijing for making it happen - while publicly dressing down the leader of America's closest regional ally.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Tr...