re: the recent shift in american strategy on iran.

i wouldn't expect the americans to stop the cyber-attacks, the sanctions or the attempts to stir internal revolt any time soon. reducing iran to a puppet regime remains an american strategic objective, so regime change is likely to remain an active goal.

but, as iran integrates more and more into military alliance with china and russia, the military option is becoming increasingly infeasible. and don't think this has nothing to do with syria.

that's forcing the americans to rethink how they deal with iran. i'd expect them to stop treating iran like an unruly lost colony and start treating it the same way it treats countries like china and russia - passive aggression.

that's going to piss off the israelis. more importantly, it's going to piss off the saudis. there's going to be some consequences. but there's not much they can do - iran has found a way out of this.

http://rt.com/op-edge/iran-sco-membership-summit-nato-821/