[T]he risk is that unconditional sanctions relief could once again reinforce Iran’s external projection of power rather than stabilize its domestic economy.
European autonomy - military, technological, economic, and financial - is beginning to take shape as Europe hedges against current and future fluctuations in [U.S.] policy.
The shift now underway is unlikely to take the form of a dramatic collapse of American power in the Gulf. It is more likely to be subtler and, for the region, more unsettling.
It is ... the moment American presidents tell the world that 'the United States stands unequivocally against this barbaric act' and then go on to commit the most violent forms of torture known to mankind.