Russia, China and North Korea did not decisively help Iran during its war with Israel last month, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) commented on its website, BTA reported.
The Washington-based think tank notes that none of the three countries came to the aid of the Islamic Republic during the Israeli and American strikes against its nuclear program despite their relations with Iran.
American analysts write about a kind of Entente (or Agreement) between the four countries, by analogy with the alliance between France, the British and the Russian Empires before World War I war.
The lack of an immediate and tangible response from Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang was expected. However, it highlights the strategic nuances that underlie the existence of this Entente, summarizes the Institute for the Study of War.
The think tank commented that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are neither a kind of axis nor do they cooperate as a healthy alliance, but rather are deeply opportunistic and transactional partners with some important common goals, engaged in an unbalanced and constantly changing strategic interaction.
Their reactions to the war between Israel and Iran clearly show that they function de facto like the Entente - that is, a non-binding understanding between states on a set of often controversial issues without formal promises of armed support in the event of military action, but without completely excluding the possibility of military support, American analysts write.
According to them, what unites the four countries is their common goal of challenging the US-dominated world order.
Each of these states pursues the common goal in its regional a sphere of interest, assisted to some extent by others, but with the intention of achieving global effect through joint efforts, the Institute for the Study of War states.
The threats that this Entente poses to the national security of the United States remain real and serious despite the limited willingness of its members to help each other, since the unifying goal of their opportunistic cooperation is to redesign the US-dominated world order in a way that drastically limits the role, power and influence of the United States, the American think tank concludes.