Tag: Trita Parsi

There was one leader in Washington who fought hard against the mission creep in Afghanistan, lamented the lack of strategic objectives, and flat-out rejected the establishment’s nation-building fantasies...Joe Biden.

To uphold an world order in which the U.S. can continue to act outside international law is equivalent to asking the Global South to make unbearable sacrifices to uphold American exceptionalism.

Moscow is playing hardball, but the question remains: do they mean to make the others sweat or scuttle the deal completely?

For more than four decades, a monomaniacal obsession with Iran has prompted successive European and U.S. governments to coddle Tehran’s rivals with weapons, almost to the point of saturation, while simultaneously denying Iran rudimentary defense capabilities.

Whether and how much Europe matters to America going forward remains to be seen.

American public increasingly desires to be a normal country: One that engages in trade and diplomacy, limits its use of force to protecting the homeland rather than policing the world.

Convinced that the U.S. has lost faith in the strategic value of the Middle East, prime ministers and kings alike are scrambling to find their strategic footing in the region. Amidst the confusion and uncertainty of a world without American protection, two models are emerging.

Unlike years past in which the collapse of the Iran deal almost automatically would bring the US and Iran back to a path toward war, a third option may exist today. The JCPOA would all but die, but the parties would pretend that it is still alive to avoid the crisis that its official death would spur. Let’s call it the coma option.

The political cost of leaving Afghanistan has largely been paid—and the geopolitical consequences have been positive.

“America’s continued military presence in the Middle East reflects outdated thinking,” Gholz says.

Descending into a public blame game is what the parties do when talks start to break down – it’s not an effective measure to get talks going.

Three steps: 1. Abandon plans of domination. 2. Let the regional players lead the negotiating dialogues. 3. Include other major powers.

The real importance of Israel's assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has not been fully understood. It wasn't just an effort to sabotage Biden's diplomacy with Iran. It was also Neyantahu's opening salvo against President-elect Joe Biden in what is already set to be an uneasy relationship.

The media has largely missed this, but Mike Pompeo has signaled that the US will enforce (non-existent) UN sanctions on Iran as early as next week by confiscating Iranian cargo ships.

The U.S. military’s large footprint in the region, combined with voluminous U.S. arms sales and support for repressive regimes, drives instability and exacerbates grievances and conditions that threaten the United States.