• BMTea@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I do remember 2020 and 2021, and I was in fact in the Gulf at the time and talked to people with knowledge of back-channel negotiations between the US and Iran. The only difference between the Suleimani situation and today is that the Biden admin supports Israel’s assassinations rather than carrying them out directly. But no one is fooled here - we know they are equal part American assassinations. This “assassination as coercive diplomacy” shit didn’t work for Trump, who was pushed by the belligerent, compromised, Israel/Saudi bought GOP fanatics to ditch the JCPOA and go for violence.

    Do you know what the goal of those back channel negotiations was, by the way? The US was demanding that Iran reduce it’s self-imposed 2000 kilometer missile distance limit to be far shorter so that it couldn’t strike Israel.

    Well here we are in 2024, with a Biden administration that has gotten use to a point where Iran and Israel are striking each other’s military bases directly. Everyone you talk to in Kuwait City, Istanbul, Manama, Doha and so on will tell you that Iran would be absolutely insane not to prioritize nuclear armament, and some suspect that they may already have some nukes stowed deep.

    The Gaza genocide and its regional implications have been a bigger policy failure than anything Trump did.