Obama's Cuba, Iran moves and Turkey-US relations

Two historical breakthroughs took place in U.S. foreign policy within the same week: An interim agreement between the world powers and Iran on its nuclear program on April 4 in Lausanne and U.S. President Barack Obama?s handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro on April 11 in Panama City.

During a recent New York Times interview with Obama, Thomas Friedman added the Myanmar situation to the steps taken for normalization with Iran and Cuba. This issue gets less attention as it seems to lack the geopolitical and strategic dimension.

In that interview with Friedman, Obama said that what he did was the result of a doctrine: ?We will engage, but we preserve all our capabilities.? 

Obama explains it with simple but clear words. He has such confidence in the level of economical, technological and military supremacy of his country that he does not want to spend more on countering threats negligible to U.S. interests. The fact that the U.S. is becoming independent of energy imports from the Middle East and Latin America has helped Obama form his new policy. 

Both Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Raul Castro of Cuba understood what Obama was trying to do in his second presidential term, and they shook the open hand that Obama extended to them in order to get rid of U.S.-led sanctions and seize the chance to become a partner of Western economies - at least in part. 

There are two important details in those moves. On Iran, Obama took his decision despite the outcry of Israel, or rather the outcry of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to intimidate the U.S. president in his own capital, exploiting the division between Democrats and Republicans. Obama gives assurances about supporting Israel in the event of an attack, but wants U.S. foreign...