Ryan Crocker: "...Iran ..simply does not carry anything remotely like that weight, not internationally, not even regionally”

in the Irish Times, here via Matt Yglesias.

"...So is there a New Cold War, comparable to that with the former Soviet Union, between the US and Iran?

“I don’t think so,” says Crocker, formulating his answer as a putdown to Tehran. “The Soviet Union was a formidable force at its height, with a massive nuclear arsenal. It had half of Europe locked up in its grasp. Iran simply does not carry anything remotely like that weight, not internationally, not even regionally.”