article_snippet.sent: We're playing checkers on the Middle East game board and Tehran's playing three-dimensional chess.
article_snippet.sent: America is alienating some of America closest allies because of the nuclear deal, and Iran is picking up new ones and bolstering relations with old ones who are growing more dependent because new ones see Iran's power rising.
article_snippet.sent: America friends aren't perfect, particularly the Saudis and even the Israelis.
article_snippet.sent: But America need Our friends aren't perfect, particularly the Saudis and even the Israelis precisely because Iran is rising.
article_snippet.sent: In the meantime, Iran's allies, Bashar al-Assad's Syria, Hezbollah and now the Houthis -- not proxies, but instruments of convenience -- see what's happening and are willing to play and cooperate even more in the Iranian game.
article_snippet.sent: We're  losing friends; Iran is gaining friends.
article_snippet.sent: And in one of the cruelest ironies, Iran's way back into the global economy is as a result of the very issue that made the global economy such a pariah: the nuclear issue.
article_snippet.sent: As the Arab world melts down and lacks a traditional epicenter of strength and power, (Egypt, Iraq, Syria), Iran is rising.
article_snippet.sent: The argument here is not that Iran is taking over the Middle East.
article_snippet.sent: But in Iran zone of influence, a zone critical to the United States -- Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, Yemen, Lebanon -- Iran is expanding Iran influence, not contracting.
article_snippet.sent: Iran is tripping all over Iran trying to figure out how to combat ISIS in Syria and yet not empower al-Assad (no answer), how to combat ISIS without favoring the Shia-dominated government and alienating Iraqi Sunnis (no answer)and how to backstop the Saudis in Yemen without enabling the Saudis in Yemen to make matters worse through the Saudis in Yemen airstrikes (no answer).
article_snippet.sent: Indeed, Iran can use the threat of ISIS to keep the Americans away from weakening the Americans ally al-Assad as well as expand Iran influence in Iraq under the guise of fighting a battle of mutual interest.
article_snippet.sent: One of the reasons the United States won't strike al-Assad is for fear of emboldening ISIS, but the other is that we don't want a proxy war with Iran in Syria.
highlights_snippet.sent: While the U.S. entangles the U.S. in the nuclear negotiations, Iran is gaining a freer hand to assert Iran regional influence .
  