Did China Pressure Iran To Make a Deal With the United States? How Will Israel Respond?

 Transition Protocol discusses the conversations and agreements that apparently happened behind the scenes that led up to this past weekend's big announcement:

Before getting to the first question, let's address the second: Apparently everyone "knows" that Israel is the spoiler here. While the US is willing to exclude Israel from whatever deal they are making with Iran, it's clear that (1) Iran still consider the two linked, and (2) no one in their right mind expects the United States to stand by and allow Iran to attack Israel, regardless of what Israel does. I agree that Iran's biggest mistake here is lack of specifics: There should be hard dates, dollar amounts, boundaries and consequences for violations. Vagueness with a country (the US) who's government is practically full of lawyers looking for every loophole and angle and advantage is only asking for trouble. 

As for China and Iran: It's valid to say that Iran was fighting for it's life these past few months. It's also valid to say that China played a large role in this, so if China did tell Iran to work for a deal, Iran didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, Larry Johnson is correct: the United States cannot be trusted to be a good faith actor on the international stage; it will do everything in it's power to maintain its position as a geopolitical leader and the "big dog" on the world stage. If China is doing this because they think they can rely solely on the world economy and virtually no military actions, they may be in for a rude awakening. 

Appeasement is the drug of choice for the Oppressor.