It’s more a Department of State problem. You know the whole CIA stuff in the region is quite often used by populist politicians, particularly the left-leaning ones. If the US tried to pull what it did before, it’s effectively diplomatic suicide in the entire region. The US wants to establish some sense of goodwill in the region. Why? Because China.

The US is competing with China in lithium extraction in the region. Despite the US having better tech at lithium extraction, China is doing everything it can to gobble it all up by throwing money around.