As the high-stakes conflict between Israel and Iran unfolded over recent weeks, there were two competing narratives on how we got here.

As the fallout continues from Israel’s emerging victory in this historic confrontation, it remains imperative that world leaders decide which narrative holds the truth, because entertaining folly on an issue as weighty as nuclear arms can be enormously perilous for everyone.

One narrative held that Iran is a peace-loving nation which has been developing a nuclear program solely for benign civilian purposes. Further, Iranian officials were negotiating in good faith with the United States concerning its rightful efforts to enrich uranium, until Israel maliciously blew up those talks by launching “Operation Rising Lion.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that “Iran did nothing wrong,” and US President Donald Trump – by launching his “Midnight Hammer” bunker-buster mission while deceptively calling for more talks – had “betrayed” the respectful path of diplomacy. Russian President Vladimir Putin concurred that the coordinated Israeli and American attacks against Iran’s nuclear sites were “groundless.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went even further, describing Israel’s military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program as “criminal,” “crazed,” and acts of “state terrorism,” while adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now surpassed Adolf Hitler in committing crimes of genocide.

The other narrative asks us to take a more measured, objective look back to the origins and declared aims of the clerical regime which has ruled Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979…