The neighbours: Moving targets

IRAN’S LEADERS HAVE long had immodest ambitions in the Middle East, pining for the respect of the neighbours who once conquered and converted them and even dreaming of leading a pan-Islamic alliance, however unlikely. In recent decades they have been exporting their revolution, propelled by national pride and an urge to pass on lessons from the long road to independence, but also driven by a deep fear that they—Shia Persians facing mostly Sunni Arabs—are not so much independent as alone in a hostile region.In the 1980s the Islamic Republic set out to cultivate friends in Arab countries after bloodily thwarting an invasion by Iraq. In Syria (pictured above) it became the main sponsor of the Assad regime after the collapse of the country’s traditional patron, the Soviet Union. In Lebanon the Islamic Republic nurtured the Hizbullah militia which became the dominant political force there and, with support from Tehran, repeatedly gave Israel a bloody nose. Iran also sponsored Hamas, the most successful of the Palestinian groups warring with Israel. Support for the fight against the Jewish state won Iran plaudits in the wider Arab world.In the aftermath of 9/11, America...



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