Time to Check Iranian Power Before it is Too Late
Time to Check Iranian Power Before it is Too Late
What does the forced resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s purge of royal princes, politicians, military commanders, business leaders, and religious elite have in common?
The answer is Iran. Iran is the elephant in the Middle East living room. Right now, the struggle between a crumbling Saudi-led Sunni Middle East regional order and a Shiite-led Iranian resurgence is about to hit a fever pitch. Iranian power politics in recent years has seen Iranian- backed proxy Shiite militia’s clear wide swaths of Islamic State and Sunni territory in Syria and Iraq to prop-up both national governments and increase Iranian influence. Iranian influence through Hezbollah in Lebanon is unquestionably stifling to democracy and stability in that trouble country. Iranian influence over Hamas in the Palestinian territories in Gaza is on the increase and at the expense of the Palestinian Authority. In Yemen, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are struggling for control of the country and fighting Saudi-led forces trying to check the spread of Iranian influence onto the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia sees the hand of Iran in protests and unrest in Bahrain and Qatar where Sunni-Monarchies control-large Shiite populations. Qatar’s cozying up to Iran continues at the expense of Saudi leadership of the Gulf States. Iran is in the process of acquiring a strategic land bridge to put itself on Israel’s doorstep just as it is doing with Saudi Arabia, and then all bets are off. As well, Iran is the world’s largest purveyor of state-sponsored terrorism and a country pushing for its own long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons so that like its strategic ally North Korea it can threaten its neighbors and the world.
At the end of the day, US President, Donald Trump, is going to have to check Iran’s military power and influence in the Middle East before it is too late just as he has to stop Kim Jong-un in North Korea. They are after all ‘flip-sides’ of the same ‘rogue state’ coin.
