The U.S. needs Iran & Venezuela in U.S. orbit for the upcoming power games against China. The U.S. is choking China’s energy partners. China thinks it can rely on the Arabs, but they will bend a knee when the time comes to Uncle Sam.
Venezuela and Iran are China’s only secure energy resources outside of Russia. Without oil China’s war machine cannot function (ask Imperial Japan in WW2).
I said it many times and I will say it again, China and Russia are making the mistake of their lives by letting Iran fall into Western orbit. They think they can survive without any allies and they are sorely mistaken. This “lone wolf” mentality will only make it easier for the U.S. to come out on top.
For a long time, US has seen IRI as both a regional counterweight and a useful threat. IRI helped justify US arms sales and military bases in the Persian Gulf by creating fear of Iranian expansion. That approach made sense when IRI had strong proxy forces, military reach, and real influence in the region. That situation no longer exists.
There is little evidence that US believes Iran can become a stable partner like Saudi Arabia or Turkey. For decades, the objective was not to overthrow IRI but to contain it. Sanctions kept Iran from becoming strong while leaving it strong enough to frighten Arab states and justify US security guarantees, arms sales, and military presence. A sanctioned but functioning IRI, reinforced by its proxy network, served US interests by limiting Iranian power and sustaining a manageable security threat, similar to how Russia is used in Europe to justify NATO expansion, defense spending, and long-term US involvement.
Today, IRI has lost its proxy forces, its military is weak, and its economy is failing. It is no longer seen as a serious threat to Arab states. Some Arab governments are now more worried about instability inside Iran than about Iranian expansion. As a result, a few are cautiously improving relations with IRI. At this point, Iran creates more problems than strategic benefits for US.
I have argued before that US does not want a fragmented Iran. Israel, however, prefers this outcome. Israel does not see Iran as a necessary balance against Sunni power and believes it can deal with Sunni states on its own. My view is that Israel has convinced US that IRI is no longer useful and should be fragmented.
The collapse of IRI’s regional network supports this change. Syria has effectively been handed over to Turkey. This is a much easier situation for Israel to manage. Turkey is a NATO member, depends on the West, and can be pressured through financial leverage and foreign debt in ways Iran could not be. From Israel’s perspective, a Turkey-influenced Syria is preferable to an IRI-aligned one.
Hamas has been neutralized. Hezbollah has been neutralized. PMU no longer function as a unified tool. With IRI stripped of its proxies and regional reach, the reason to keep it as a controlled adversary has disappeared.
IRI has outlived its usefulness. For years, many American politicians openly signaled that a nuclear-armed Iran would be tolerated. Several former CIA officials and senior US intelligence figures publicly argued that a nuclear-armed Iran could be contained and that deterrence would be preferable to war or regime collapse. IRI never crossed that threshold. Without the bomb, without effective proxies, and without regional leverage, IRI no longer serves any strategic function for US and will be fragmented and discarded.