While US President Donald Trump just finished his first Asian trip, many media outlets have described that Trump loves the rolling carpet welcome ceremony and being flattered. Especially, when he meets the world’s most powerful leader – Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump keeps his criticism at home. Trump visited Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines and it seemed to be that he didn’t confirm the concrete so-called “Indo-Pacific Region” strategy which is aimed to include India to contain China. Therefore, some Western media said that Trump made observers feel perplexed. 

However, India plays a very important role in Trump’s Middle East strategy. On October 13, Trump reiterated his determination to terminate the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) for security reasons if the US allies along with the US Congress failed to compel Iran to negotiate curbing the nuclear weapons it had developed. Trump’s declaration comprises two functions: First, take advantage of traditional US foreign policy to accuse Iran of harboring terrorists, thus meeting the demands of their Middle Eastern allies; Second, attempt to restrict US Congress’ power that has been taking over presidential foreign affairs’ obligations in terms of implementing economic sanctions on Russia, Iran, and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in early August, providing Trump insufficient opportunity to normalize US-Russian relations. 

Trump also stressed that the US might classify the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group and increase sanctions on Tehran. Obviously, Trump hopes to employ rhetoric pressure to force Tehran to negotiate for bilateral talks regarding developing a new dialogue and obtaining benefits from US-Iranian relations. Iran has become the target of US foreign policy because both Russia and DPRK are attempting to strategically collaborate with oil-rich Iran to deter the US from pressurizing it to ease the economic deficit. 

The conventional perception of a hostile Iran in US foreign policy circles has reemerged due to justifications that the Iranian government suppresses dissidents, is developing ballistic missiles targeting Israel, and supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi forces in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, and so on. 

Why has Trump resumed perceiving traditional Iran as a chess piece and a pawn? Probably because the Trump administration’s new strategy in the Middle East is transferring from Syria and Iraq to Iran. They are targeting Iran because Russia is attempting to secure strategic relationships like Russia-Iran-Turkey, Russia-China-Pakistan, and Russia-Iran-DPRK to establish a new triangular axis in the bigger or smaller range to maintain primary power from the Middle East to Northeast Asia. Therefore, insight into the reasons Trump is targeting Iran is crucial in observing US grand strategy in its entirety. 

First, shifting the focus from Iraq to Iran, US is facing a trouble that the Kurdistan region including Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Halabja, Duhok, and the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, where the Iraqi militants are arriving at now, held an independence referendum on September 25 and requested the intervention of the international community and the UN regarding dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to prevent war between Iraq and the Kurds. Iraq might be divided into two segments that are both ruled by Kurdish leaders – the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by the current Iraqi president Fuad Masum, who is supported by the United States. 

Therefore, the US sees no benefit in accepting the referendum and that makes it no different from the other players who insist on sovereignty and integrity of status quo in this region. Situation is more complicated in Iraq and it seems to all the entangling parties that Trump has no idea to involve himself into another civil war in Iraq again. Iran thus reemerges in US foreign policy circle to play the role of enemy. 

Second, changing focus from Syria to Iran, the US is maintaining the standoff in Syria between the Assad government and anti-governmental rebels. Trump had reached an agreement with the Russian president Putin regarding setting non-military escalation regions for conflict coordination to ensure humanitarian aid proceeded and organized the negotiation timetable for all parties’ participation in this region. However, due to the Russiagate scandal, Trump had no choice but to challenge Russia until he visits the country for further talks on normalizing bilateral relationships between US and Russia, which may lead to existing disputes on defining terrorist groups on both sides. 

Despite the fact that these are old controversies, Russia and the US still need to talk to each other and Russiagate has hampered this dialogue. Therefore, focusing on the Syrian issue will continue to increase tensions between Washington and Moscow and that is against Trump’s determination to ease tensions and collaborate with Russia to control the changing global order that is challenged to be rapidly changed by the rise of China as Graham Allison and many other US officials have worried about. 

Third, Trump has declared his Afghanistan strategy and that is to increase the troops in Afghanistan. Trump accused Pakistan of harboring terrorists and that makes Islamabad anxious enough about their traditional ally to put more pressure on their relationship with China, who provides weapons and infrastructure through the Silk Road Economic Belt project to elevate Pakistan’s role in South Asia. The United States has leant on India to balance the China-Pakistan relationship. In addition, the US strategy in Afghanistan is to strengthen its military presence to further inhibit both Russia and China’s increasing influence in the Central and Southern Asian region. 

Therefore, Trump is focusing on Iran, Afghanistan, and DPRK to curb the triangle axis collaborations of Russia-Turkey-Iran, Russia-China-Pakistan, Russia-China-DPRK, and Russia-Iran-DPRK. Trump is forced to do so because, given Russiagate, he must utilize this scandal to prove that he is not collaborating with Russia to threaten US national security and national interests. During the standoff between the White House, the Congress, and the media, Trump had the consensus of traditional institutional elites; otherwise, he curbs the rise of China and Russia through rhetoric war by condemning the nuclear weapons status of DPRK and Iran, accusing them of being rogue nations. In Pakistan. According to Graham Allison’s Thucydides’ Trap theory, the rapid shift between the ruling power and rising power usually leads to bloodshed and that is why the US should remember the successful Cold War experience. 

(The author is an assistant professor at Yaun Ze University, contributing writer for Chinese newspapers and news agencies. The article reflects the author’s opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.)