GROWING INFLUENCE OF IRAN IN THE MIDDLE EAST: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

After the 1979 revolution, Iran started to increase its influence in the Middle East. For this purpose, Iran employed different tools of soft and hard power. Iran exercises its influence across all major flashpoints in Middle East by conventional & non-conventional means and it has secured a competitive edge. Iran‟s network of influence is based on establishing a regional hegemony in the Middle East. Iran‟s political jargon at times has also manifested the goal to achieve regional hegemony and its foreign policy objectives are also aligned with this goal. . Iran consolidates its influence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and execute its strategic goals mainly via two tools; a robust military doctrine and its third party forces. Iran has consolidated this capability to the point where it acts as the most important factor in projecting its regional influence. At the same time, U.S. tried to suppress this increasing influence of Iran by employing different approaches such as sanctions and an anti-Iranian rhetoric internationally by each regime but despite all the efforts, a reverse of the desired outcome can be seen. This is because the U.S. and Iran‟s objectives for the region are clashing. Contemporarily, growing influence of Iran in different geopolitical contexts of the Middle East is a transpiring reality. The analysis focuses on the tools of Iranian influence in the region; both hard and soft power, then continues to explain the Iran‟s role in each of the major theater; Yemen, Syria and Iraq and delineate the Iran‟s strategic goals for each of these. Finally, the paper correlates the role of the U.S. policies for the region and this growing influence of Iran in a directly proportional manner.