File:Which Path to Persia.pdf

Policy paper by the Brookings Institution on how to undermine / "contain" Iran

 paper  by Kenneth Pollack, Daniel Byman, Martin Indyk, Suzanne Maloney, Michael O’Hanlon, Bruce Riedel dated June 2009

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Subjects: Iran, US/Foreign policy, 2025 Israeli attacks on Iran, War/Preparation, Containment
Source: Brookings Institution (Link)

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The document notes at page 89:

For the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been an enemy for 30 years, one that has sought to thwart U.S. policies in the Middle East, such as advancing the Arab-Israeli peace process and creating stable regional security arrangements. Crisis after crisis has arisen between Iran and the United States but Iran has never been and almost certainly never will be an existential threat to the United States. It harbors no territorial designs on the United States, has never conducted a terrorist operation aimed at the American homeland, and, even should it acquire nuclear weapons, lacks the delivery systems to threaten the United States directly. Further, its economy is anemic, and even if substantially reformed, will probably never provide the base for Iran to make itself a challenger to the United states on par with Nazi Germany, imperial Japan, the soviet Union, or communist China.