HONG KONG, April 9. /TASS/. Washington can currently be considered the loser in the US-Iran standoff, according to Zhu Yongbiao, a professor at the school of politics and international relations at Lanzhou University (northwest China).
Iran’s new terms "are much more stringent than those offered before the war. From this perspective, this war is actually a failure for the US," the South China Morning Post quotes the expert as saying.
Zhu Yongbiao noted that Washington has failed to achieve regime change in Tehran - its main stated goal, "which [US President Donald] Trump quickly abandoned" - while Iran has retained control of the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, the US and Israel "expended many of their sophisticated air-defense missiles to intercept far cheaper Iranian drones and projectiles." Washington’s serious underestimation of Iran’s capabilities, as well as American power and Israeli influence, contributed to this failure. The US was unprepared for a protracted war and lacked coherent contingency plans if its primary objective stalled, the expert noted.
Ma Bo, an associate professor at Nanjing University’s school of international studies, characterized the US problem as one of strategic design rather than tactical execution. He believes Washington set unrealistic goals and constantly changed them during the conflict, leaving itself no clear way out. "Despite its military superiority, Washington also failed to ensure the stable transit of the Strait of Hormuz, instead letting Tehran weaponize the chokepoint and redirect economic pressure onto global markets," Ma Bo added. He believes it’s possible the conflict will gradually shift "from US-Iran to Israel-Iran confrontation, with America stepping back to provide intelligence, weapons and diplomatic support behind the scenes." Should that happen, "any US-Iran ceasefire deal would be fundamentally hollowed out," Ma Bo believes.
Zhao Minghao, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, said the US was "paying an enormous price" for its self-chosen war. Before the war, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz was unimpeded, and Trump’s urgent attempt to open it portrays the US president as "trying to solve a crisis of his own making," he added. The Trump administration "was drawn into a quagmire," as this war is "damaging American credibility and exposing cracks in the US alliance system," the expert noted.