The United States has a lot on its plate. Preserving hegemony is not an easy task, and pursuing national interests becomes even harder when other powerful countries set out to regain their former glory.
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Both Russia, China, and Iran have all historically had far greater global influence. Some were superpowers for hundreds of years before Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, which later became the foundation of modern Europe.
But even a country as great as the United States has a limit to how many fires it can put out at the same time. Washington's main concern is Ukraine and the encroaching Russian bear that seeks to turn the dissolution of the Soviet Union into a minor inconvenience. As for China, nothing more can be said. The economic monster will soon make the US' technological and military industry look like a joke.
With so many problems, the US views Iran as an annoying fly to get rid of, even at the cost of concessions in Vienna.
The way things stand at the moment, Tehran is in a better bargaining position vis-à-vis the superpowers. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to work some magic with words.
Just a few days ago, he made it clear that sanctions on Iran would remain in place unless it started behaving, and nice words also came out of his mouth at a United Nations Security Council meeting, in which he called on Moscow to change its course of action. My own mother telling me to start behaving did not help, I doubt it will with Putin.
As time goes on, it seems that Washington's magazine is empty of bullets. Diplomacy alone will not solve the crisis unless it is backed by tie-breaking military capabilities. The world is looking at the crown of the Russia-China-Iran triangle, and suddenly the US seems weak and ineffective.
This forlorn situation has not gone unnoticed by Israeli decision-makers either. If that is how our ally will stand by us when the need arises – with words but not actions – perhaps we would be better off taking care of Iran ourselves and cooperating with Russia. After all, the IDF Air Force's freedom of action in the north goes through Moscow.
The Iranians, in turn, understand that time is on their side. They will toughen their stance further and step out of the Vienna talks overjoyed. For the US, this headache is just a bit too much.
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