Is Iran America’s Suez Crisis? Not to Xi Jinping

May 26, 2026

Also published in Wall Street Journal
Egyptian troops cross a makeshift bridge over the Suez Canal in 1956 - source: Wikimedia Commons
About the Authors
Michael Singh
Michael Singh

Michael Singh is the Managing Director and Steven D. Levy Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

Some may read Xi’s approach as a strategy to make America expend its strength far from Chinese shores, but Beijing increasingly looks more like a regional power than a global superpower.

When the U.S. failed to secure a quick victory over Iran, some observers said this was America’s “Suez moment.” If so, someone forgot to tell Xi Jinping. The analogy isn’t meant to be a kind one. In historical terms, Suez is a byword for the humiliation of a once-great but declining power. In 1956 British forces, along with those of France and Israel, landed in Egypt intent on overthrowing the government, but Washington, worried that the war might benefit the Soviets, forced London into an early cease-fire and withdrawal. The U.K. grudgingly passed the mantle of Middle East hegemony to the U.S. With the Trump administration struggling to open the Strait of Hormuz and declare victory in the Gulf, will America be shoved aside by China and experience its own Suez moment? All signs point to no...

Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal website.

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