Iran, Turkey in China camp

The surprise announcement in July that Iran was negotiating a wide-ranging, 25-year bilateral deal with China has rumbled through the capitals of the Middle East and the West for two months now. So vital does Iran consider this deal for its future strategy that no amount of domestic politics could undermine it.

In fact, the results of Iran's second round of parliamentary elections last weekend have underscored it. With no change to the conservative majority in parliament - conservatives in the country are traditionally suspicious of any interactions with the West - the long, slow death of Iran's budding rapprochement with the West is all but certain.

A similar situation is occurring in Turkey, where Ankara's war of words with its NATO partners is escalating into concrete actions - cash-strapped Greece has just announced its biggest weapons acquisition this century.

Underlying both of years-long developments

these is the general disarray of Europe.

As much as leaders of both Iran and Turkey talk about seeking policy independence, in truth both need partners. Tehran and Ankara were hoping they would find those partners in Europe. But Europe is so busy with its own infighting that it has little time for anything beyond its borders. With no clear path toward Europe visible, Iran and Turkey have started breaking ground on a path away from it.

For years now, Iranian moderates, led by President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have urged European countries to stand up to the United States and continue with the nuclear deal negotiated between Iran and international powers.

But European countries, struggling with their own internal issues, have reasons not to antagonize President Donald Trump's White House and side with Iran. London, for one, has its eye on a future trade deal with the US. Next, Paris finds itself facing Iranian intervention in countries, like Libya, where it has interests; and Berlin, grappling with the looming end of the Angela Merkel era, is too distracted.

Taken together, this has led to