Iran, China and the Panama Canal: Is the US Being Encircled?
by Lawrence A. Franklin • March 14, 2023 at 5:00 am
Iran and China are on the move again. Last Friday, to the apparent surprise of the Biden Administration, China asserted its influence in the Middle East by entering the vacuum created by US President Joe Biden, and brokering a deal between Iran and its threatened neighbor, Saudi Arabia, which Biden had vowed to make a "pariah," and "end the sale of material" to it. The Saudis heard.
Iran, meanwhile, has not been shy about its mission to "export the revolution" to the Western hemisphere. Most recently, in February, two Iranian warships docked in Brazil, under its recently elected socialist President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. From there, the ships will reportedly proceed to the Panama Canal, already controlled at both ends by Iran's newish ally -- the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Chinese Communist Party officially declared a "people's war" on the US on May 14, 2019, in flagship news[paper, the People's Daily, as well as before that, on January 29, 2017, even if the US was not listening.
Iran has high praise for da Silva. He has refused to join the US-led sanctions regime against Tehran, and has stated repeatedly that Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear programs and that the Islamic Republic should be taken at its word until proven otherwise by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to the IAEA, however, Iran seems to have been cheating the "whole time."
Now according to reports, Iran is just days away from being able to create its nuclear bombs, just as the 2015 JCPOA "nuclear deal" allowed it to do, anyway. The Biden Administration, like the Obama Administration, is most likely just trying to avoid having Iran going full nuclear "on my watch," as Obama let slip in 2015.
In a visible challenge to US dominance in the Western Hemisphere, the Iranian ships will proceed to the Panama Canal, at both ends of which sits -- China.
"It's no secret that China has been pouring resources into South America this century, chipping away at the United States' historic dominance." — Buenos Aires Times, February 18, 2022.
Is the US being encircled?
Iran and China are on the move again. Last Friday, to the apparent surprise of the Biden Administration, China asserted its influence in the Middle East by entering the vacuum created by US President Joe Biden, and brokering a deal between Iran and its threatened neighbor, Saudi Arabia, which Biden had vowed to make a "pariah," and "end the sale of material" to it. The Saudis heard.
Iran, meanwhile, has not been shy about its mission to "export the revolution" to the Western hemisphere. Most recently, in February, two Iranian warships docked in Brazil, under its recently elected socialist President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. From there, the ships will reportedly proceed to the Panama Canal, already controlled at both ends by Iran's newish ally -- the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
