Obama’s Nixon-goes-to-China moment–in Tehran

Secretary of State John Kerry’s plane is touching down in a host of countries this week to talk about the new Iraq crisis and the continuing Syria catastrophe. His itinerary includes Cairo, Amman, Baghdad, Paris and Brussels. But the capital Kerry—or even better, President Barack Obama—should visit isn’t anywhere on his agenda yet: Tehran.

If ever there was a Nixon-goes-to-China, this is it. Preventing a full-scale outbreak of civil war in Iraq is not something the United States can do on its own. Neither is ending the war in Syria.