Iran’s new sense of regional power - analysis

For many years, Iran’s regime put forward a narrative that it was on the winning side of history. It claimed the US was in decline and Israel would soon be destroyed. None of this came true the way Iran believed it would, but Tehran today looks around the Middle East and feels that it has been, at least in part, proven correct.

This is because Iran’s allies in Syria are now moving back toward the Arab League and Iran’s president just returned from Damascus while its foreign minister was in Beirut.  

Iranian media has published in recent days some examples of how it looks at the region. For instance, Mehr News says that Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri traveled to Oman over the weekend along with a delegation to strengthen defense ties with the Gulf state. “Emphasizing that the development of regional and defense diplomacy is one of the important indicators of world diplomacy, he said that the expansion of regional diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regional countries is indeed a win-win strategy.”

The report says that Iran is pushing a concept here that is designed to prevent the “interference” of other states.  

In another article, Iran has boasted of improving ties with countries that were part of the Abraham Accords. The article notes Israel’s ties with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco and even hints at “the cusp of another deal with Saudi Arabia.” READ MORE