“Michèle Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense during the Obama administration, said that the Trump administration’s approach of maximum pressure ‘has [put] a lot of pressure on Iran, but it hasn’t created any path to the negotiating table.’
“‘There’s no way for them to get back into negotiations,’ she continued. ‘And so, in desperation they have turned to China. Every US administration since Nixon has had a strategic dialogue with China, except this one. This one has taken a very transactional unilateral approach.’
“‘If we had a strategic dialogue with China, this is the kind of issue that we could have very candid discussions about shared concerns, about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, alternative ways to handle it, like working together to get them back to the negotiating table, to get to even better agreement,’ said Flournoy…”