Trump’s a Sucker if He Thinks He Can Split Up Putin and the Ayatollahs - Michael Weiss, Daily Beast

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Divorce Iranian Style
Trump’s a Sucker if He Thinks He Can Split Up Putin and the Ayatollahs
Michael Weiss 02.09.17 12:03 AM ET

Moscow and the mullahs are deeply in bed with each other, especially in Syria. But that doesn’t mean Putin won’t play Trump along.
02.09.17 12:03 AM ET

The central contradiction in Donald Trump’s foreign policy, so far as a policy can be divined, has been reconciling his love and hatred for two American enemies. The love, of course, is for Vladimir Putin; a “killer,” sure, but then again, who isn’t? His hatred is for the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was quite rightly described by Defense Secretary James Mattis the other day as the “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” albeit one still enjoying close Russian air and tactical support and intelligence-sharing in Syria, as well as a healthy and growing arms trade with Moscow.

But not to worry. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that a budding Trumpist strategy is to try and cleave Putin away from the ayatollahs. “If there’s a wedge to be driven between Russia and Iran, we’re willing to explore that,” one unnamed administration official told the newspaper, which also relied on a number of unnamed European and Arab officials who confirmed that this was indeed the long view coming into focus in a White House where the new tenants still sometimes confer in the dark because they haven’t yet found all the light switches.

Continued: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/09/trump-s-a-sucker-if-he-thinks-he-can-split-up-putin-and-the-ayatollahs.html