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The U.S. Bid for Detente with Iran Has Utterly Failed
(Wall Street Journal) Walter Russell Mead - From Gaza to the Red Sea and from Jordan to Iraq, there has been a stream of unprovoked attacks by Iran and its proxies. In January 2021, Team Biden anticipated a quick agreement with Iran that would put Middle East tensions on ice while the U.S. focused on countering China's rising power. But Iran, not the U.S., has controlled the pace and direction of Middle East politics since President Biden took office. As 10 successive American presidents repeatedly learned, the Middle East can't be ignored. What happens in the Middle East often doesn't stay there. The region's dominant role in global energy markets means that even countries like the U.S. that don't depend on Middle Eastern oil can't escape the consequences if regional instability disrupts the flow of oil and gas to places like Europe, India, China and Japan. We can neither "fix" the Middle East nor ignore it. Given the limits on American resources and the range of our global interests, America's Middle East policies must focus on essentials. We need to prevent aspiring hegemons like Iran, Russia and China from acquiring the power to dominate the region or interrupt the flow of energy to key economies. We also need to limit the effect of the Middle East's regional conflicts, terrorist movements, and radical ideologies on the wider world. The Middle East is on fire today because the Biden administration's core regional strategy to reach some kind of detente with Iran has failed. Iran is closer every day to nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Taliban's humiliation of the U.S. in Afghanistan, the shock of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the success of jihadist movements across much of Africa have combined to breathe new energy into global terror networks. The writer, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College.