plawolf
Lieutenant General
US duking out with Iran in the middle east is also in China's interest. I think China cares less and less about the western sanctions on Iran now, given the irreversible decoupling of the global financial system (fall of the USD hegemony). Ultimately it is in China's interest that Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons, whether an agreement is made between Iran and the west doesn't really concern China anymore.
Iran doesn’t have the hard power to have a great chance of being able to inflict meaningful, lasting damage on the US (ie sink a carrier). So unless China wants to kick off AR in the next few months, there is little benefit to Iran and America going to blows.
The US today is also very different from the one under Bush, where no concern will be had about moral responsibility or humanitarian normals.
This means that in the event of open war between the US and Iran, there is almost zero prospect that the US would burden itself with occupation and nation building afterwards (which it supremely sucks at). Instead it will just do what it does best, blow shit up on an industrial scale, collapse economic, industrial and social order and not even make any token attempts at alleviating the suffering of Iranian civilians or preserving regional stability afterwards.
That means Iran will only cost America ammo, which can be quickly replenished. In turn, Russia and China will loose a valuable ally to distract and stretch American forces with.
I think this is a major reason behind Russia rushing advanced weapons to Iran. Not to help fuel the fire but actually to try and control it because those new weapons won’t be operational for months if not years. The argument to Iran is, why fight now when you are so overmatched when if you wait a little, you will have all these shiny new weapons you can use that will greatly increase your odds.
I expect China to be making a similar offer on the economics side.
I think this Sino-Russian diplomacy is the main thing holding Iran back, and not because it’s truly cowed by Israeli and American military might.