Since its 1979 transformation from a U.S.-allied monarchy to a fervently anti-American theocracy, Karim Sadjadpour argues, the Islamic Republic of Iran has harnessed Islamist extremism better than any of its peers. And no country in the Middle East has Iran’s formidable “combination of geographic size, human capital, ancient history, and vast natural resources.” Despite all this, Tehran is far from realizing its vision of a Middle East in which there is no U.S. presence, Israel has been replaced by a Palestinian state, and the radical Shiite tyranny both inspires and dominates.
Opinion polls show that nearly two-thirds of young Arabs in the region now view Iran as an adversary, a sizable majority of Arabs of all ages want Iran to withdraw from regional conflicts, and more than half of Arab Shiites hold an “unfavorable” view of Iran. In recent years, Iraqi protesters have attacked and set fire to the Iranian consulates in Najaf and Karbala—two Shiite shrine cities that are longtime Iranian strongholds in Iraq—and Lebanese Shiites have protested against Hizballah in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyah.
Mutual fears of Iran also helped midwife the Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements that gave Israel a strategic foothold several dozen miles from Iran’s border. [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei, who denounced the accords as a “betrayal to the Islamic world,” still contends that the plight of the Palestinians is the most important issue in the Islamic world, and he continues to dedicate significant resources to “resisting” Israel.
His support for regional proxies in the occupied territories and elsewhere has created an axis of misery that stretches across the Middle East: Syria and Yemen are still mired in civil war, and in Lebanon a recent Gallup poll revealed that 85 percent of the population finds it difficult to get by, over 50 percent cannot afford food, and 63 percent want to leave the country permanently.
Read more on Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/2022-02-16/irans-hollow-victory