WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Having defeated Republican Mitt Romney at home, Barack Obama has no shortage of adversaries to grapple with abroad, including the governments of Iran, Syria and possibly China.
The Democratic president's re-election ensures continuity in U.S. foreign policy but leaves open questions such as whether diplomacy can constrain Iran's nuclear program or whether Israel or the United States might resort to air strikes.
Nor is it obvious whether Obama will be able to sustain his refusal so far to try to tip the scales in Syria's civil war by allowing U.S. arms to flow to the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
If events permit, U.S. foreign policy analysts said Obama will continue his "pivot" to Asia, seeking to reorient U.S. policy to take advantage of the projected growth in such nations as China and India and gradually withdraw from the Middle East.
However, both Iran, which the United States and its allies suspect of developing nuclear weapons, and Syria, where a car bomb killed and wounded dozens in the capital, Damascus, on Tuesday, will demand attention.
2013 DECISIVE ON IRAN?
Martin Indyk, vice president of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, said 2013 could be a decisive year on Iran and suggested Obama's wider commitment to nonproliferation could produce a "focused and assertive" policy.
"It's going to be very high on the agenda," Indyk said. "Preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons is a critical imperative for bolstering the nonproliferation regime."
Iran denies U.S. accusations that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic program, saying its program is for peaceful uses such as generating electricity and producing medical isotopes.
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