As the old adage goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed. As geopolitical tensions flare across the Middle East, a recurring question echoes through the international theater: Why haven’t China and Russia come to Iran’s rescue? Tehran increasingly finds itself targeted by Western sanctions and military pressure, yet its powerful northern and eastern partners remain largely on the sidelines.

Despite frequent Western hand-wringing over a burgeoning “new axis” of autocracies, the reality is that neither Moscow nor Beijing has the power — or the willingness — to confront the United States and the West militarily and directly on Iran’s behalf.