With its neighboring rivals eliminated, Hezbollah undefeated in
Lebanon and world powers grappling with its refusal to halt uranium
enrichment, Iran is well on its way to becoming the dominant force
in the Middle East.
As world powers Tuesday began studying the wordy 23-page
rejection of an international package aimed at persuading Iran to
stop enrichment, a leading think tank said the US-led "war on
terror" has bolstered the nation's growing influence.
The Chatham House report points out the invasions of Iraq and
Afghanistan have removed Iran's main rival regimes.
Shi'ite Iran, it said, has been swift to fill the power vacuum
created by the removal of the hardline Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan
and Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led secular Iraq.
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its invasion of
Lebanon, widely seen as a failed attempt to destroy the
Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, have also put the Islamic state
"in a position of considerable strength," said the think tank.
Meanwhile experts predict that if Iran is able to continue
enrichment work unchecked, it may be able to construct nuclear
warheads by 2010.
Fears of a resurgent Iran led an Israeli minister on Tuesday to
warn that Israel should build more bomb shelters.
"The Iranians have said very clearly that if they come under
attack, their primary target would be Israel." Pensioner Affairs
Minister Rafi Eitan told Israel Radio.
The Chatham House report says that the increasing instability
across the Middle East is fuelling Iran's power, particularly at
the expense of the United States.
Since the end of the Lebanon war, refugees have returned to
their villages to find the unexploded remnants of US-made cluster
bombs scattering their homes, further fuelling the negative image
of the US in the region.
But it is in Iraq in particular that Iran has now superseded the
US as the most influential power, says Chatham House, now regarding
the rival it fought a bitter war with throughout the 1980s as its
"own backyard".
It is also a "prominent presence" in its other war-torn
neighbor, Afghanistan, according to Chatham House.
The report says: "There is little doubt that Iran has been the
chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East.
"The United States, with coalition support, has eliminated two
of Iran's regional rival governments but has failed to replace
either with coherent and stable political structures."
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The think tank said the US needs to understand better Iran's links
with its neighbors to see why the country felt able "to resist
Western pressure."
"The US-driven agenda for confronting Iran is severely
compromised by the confident ease with which Iran sits in its
region," said the report.
(China Daily August 24, 2006)
