Iran's regional ambitions are clear and worrying
Arabs have very real, legitimate worries about Iran's increased muscle-flexing.
Sharif Nashashibi by Sharif Nashashibi
Iran has been portrayed as a regional threat for decades. Such portrayals have at times been fabricated, exaggerated or convenient. However, Tehran's recent actions and statements leave no doubt about its regional ambitions.
This month, Ali Younisi, an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, said Iran is now an empire, and Iraq "has become part of this empire". Also in March, Iran's top general, Mohammad Ali Jafari, praised "the ever-increasing export" of his country's 1979 "Islamic revolution", which "has entered a new chapter".
In February, Qassem Suleimani, head of the Quds Force - the foreign wing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps - said: "Today we see signs of the Islamic revolution being exported throughout the region, from Bahrain to Iraq and from Syria to Yemen and North Africa."
Alarm over Iran’s rising influence
In September, Iranian MP Ali Reza Zakani, who is reportedly close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said his country now controls four Arab capitals - Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa - which "belong to the Islamic Iranian revolution".
Clear intent
These are not nuanced statements that are open to interpretation and context. They show Tehran's clear intent to project its power regionally, and its allies are serving - unwittingly or otherwise - as tools in this grand project. This can no longer be discounted as the ramblings of conspiracy theorists or the propaganda of its sworn enemies.
Tehran has troops actively engaged in two Arab countries - Iraq and Syria - and has proxy forces in two others - Lebanon and Yemen. Such direct Iranian involvement in Arab states is unprecedented, and ironic given Tehran's denunciations of foreign meddling in countries' internal affairs.
Furthermore, its involvement is in support of sectarian governments and militias that have committed countless atrocities. This reveals the hypocrisy of a regime that highlights its enemies' human rights abuses.
No wonder, then, that opinion polls show that Iran's expanded Middle East footprint has left it more isolated regionally.
"Most Arabs and Muslims now hold decidedly negative views of Iran and are solidly opposed to Iran's regional ambitions," wrote James Zogby, managing director of Zogby Research Services (ZRS), which has conducted annual polls of regional public opinion vis-a-vis Iran for over a decade.
The argument that Tehran's more aggressive regional role is necessary to counter Israeli and US hegemony is illogical given the opposition of most Arabs to all three. The solution to hegemony is not more hegemons, but none at all.
"In the eyes of many Arabs," Iran has gone from "being perceived as a bastion of principled resistance," to being "viewed as a meddlesome neighbor pursuing a dangerous and divisive agenda," Zogby added.
So much for promises by Rouhani and his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to improve ties with the Arab world.
Iran's popularity...
continued
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/o...ambitions-clear-worrying-150322132016267.html
Arabs have very real, legitimate worries about Iran's increased muscle-flexing.
Sharif Nashashibi by Sharif Nashashibi
Iran has been portrayed as a regional threat for decades. Such portrayals have at times been fabricated, exaggerated or convenient. However, Tehran's recent actions and statements leave no doubt about its regional ambitions.
This month, Ali Younisi, an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, said Iran is now an empire, and Iraq "has become part of this empire". Also in March, Iran's top general, Mohammad Ali Jafari, praised "the ever-increasing export" of his country's 1979 "Islamic revolution", which "has entered a new chapter".
In February, Qassem Suleimani, head of the Quds Force - the foreign wing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps - said: "Today we see signs of the Islamic revolution being exported throughout the region, from Bahrain to Iraq and from Syria to Yemen and North Africa."
Alarm over Iran’s rising influence
In September, Iranian MP Ali Reza Zakani, who is reportedly close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said his country now controls four Arab capitals - Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa - which "belong to the Islamic Iranian revolution".
Clear intent
These are not nuanced statements that are open to interpretation and context. They show Tehran's clear intent to project its power regionally, and its allies are serving - unwittingly or otherwise - as tools in this grand project. This can no longer be discounted as the ramblings of conspiracy theorists or the propaganda of its sworn enemies.
Tehran has troops actively engaged in two Arab countries - Iraq and Syria - and has proxy forces in two others - Lebanon and Yemen. Such direct Iranian involvement in Arab states is unprecedented, and ironic given Tehran's denunciations of foreign meddling in countries' internal affairs.
Furthermore, its involvement is in support of sectarian governments and militias that have committed countless atrocities. This reveals the hypocrisy of a regime that highlights its enemies' human rights abuses.
No wonder, then, that opinion polls show that Iran's expanded Middle East footprint has left it more isolated regionally.
"Most Arabs and Muslims now hold decidedly negative views of Iran and are solidly opposed to Iran's regional ambitions," wrote James Zogby, managing director of Zogby Research Services (ZRS), which has conducted annual polls of regional public opinion vis-a-vis Iran for over a decade.
The argument that Tehran's more aggressive regional role is necessary to counter Israeli and US hegemony is illogical given the opposition of most Arabs to all three. The solution to hegemony is not more hegemons, but none at all.
"In the eyes of many Arabs," Iran has gone from "being perceived as a bastion of principled resistance," to being "viewed as a meddlesome neighbor pursuing a dangerous and divisive agenda," Zogby added.
So much for promises by Rouhani and his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to improve ties with the Arab world.
Iran's popularity...
continued
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/o...ambitions-clear-worrying-150322132016267.html
