https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-777775
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Israel, spoke with Putin for 50 minutes and expressed sharp criticism of the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran, as in recent developments Iran inches closer to Russia. The governments completed work on a new treaty and spoke of a Gaza ceasefire, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaking with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as they discussed the strengthening of bilateral ties between the two countries. This poses a concern to Israel as they believe Iran’s actions are helping transform Israel’s war against Hamas into a regional and international conflict.
Iran’s intentions with their newly sprung relations with China and Russia pose a threat to the United States and allied countries. Their relationship has developed for various reasons. Firstly China and Russia are political powers, and Iran sees potential benefits in terms of trade, military, and diplomatic support. All countries also have similar interests in regional influence/stability, specifically in counterbalancing the US influence. The three countries have also agreed on a Gaza-Israel ceasefire, in which there agreements brings them even closer together. We can furthermore assume the relations are growing considering Iran recently joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a China-led security and economic IGO. SCO is a platform for leading authoritarian regimes to back one another in suppressing democratic and Western ideas. So to match these relations and influences I believe the United States will closely monitor and asses Iran’s increasing relations with Russia and China as well as strengthen their alliances and partnerships, especially in these regions. This way The United States will not be pushed out, and can maintain its national interests.
I believe the growing cooperation between Iran, China, and Russia could have possible negative implications for the United States and NATO as a whole, which we discussed in class. These relations could may impact The United States’ foreign policy decisions, for example, the government may want to station more bases in allied countries near these adversaries to maintain containment, another term we discussed in class. The containment theory refers to a strategy used by different countries to prevent the expansion of rival powers and ideologies. It was very prominent in the Cold War, where the United States seemed to control the spread of commission. One problem with the containment theory is that it requires a significant commitment of resources economic/military to maintain containment.