Special to WorldTribune.com

By Fariborz Saremi

The Iranian revolutionary regime has succeeded in alienating other Muslim states in the region by attempting to export its own version of Islam to countries within the Middle East.

Ever since its first day of coming to power in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has meddled in the affairs of its neighbors. It has sought to implement the doctrine of the “Velayate Faghih”, which enables the ruling clergy to see itself as the ultimate voice of the Islamic world.

The doctrine, which is medieval, stipulates that political interference in other Muslim countries is a duty. This, however, exposes the hypocrisy of the Iranian position, since the regime in Teheran has often criticized Arab leaders for the amount of external influence they have allowed in their countries while at the same time constantly trying to meddle in them.

The Iranian government tries to justify its behavior by claiming that its links with dissident groups in other Muslim countries are merely “moral support”.

This interference tends to be counterproductive since it alienates neighbors and divides interests in the region. In other words, the regime in Teheran often sabotages its own intentions. Although it is clear that Iran can and should play a major role in shaping politics in the region, its efforts to do so are making it unpopular.

Its clandestine nuclear program has encouraged other countries to see it as a country that will seek to dominate the region through military superiority if it fails to do so ideologically.

An undeniable factor in Iran’s continuing efforts to impose its Islamic will on the region has been the support of its regime by China and Russia. This diplomatic and tactical support has hampered all international efforts to find a lasting resolution to Iran’s nuclear crisis. The Russians and Chinese have chosen to sustain a despotic regime that acts in line with their economic and strategic interests. Thus, the Russian and Chinese governments are to be held partly responsible for the stalemate in the negotiations between the International Community and Iran.

Perhaps the worst effect of the Russian and Chinese support for the Islamic Regime is that the interests of the Iranian people are being overlooked. The Iranian people are engaged in a struggle for secularism and democracy – clearly goals that by far supersede their perceived desire for peaceful nuclear energy in a country that is sitting on an ocean of oil and gas reserves.

Russia and China are helping to hinder Iranians from establishing a democratic and accountable system which would be an ideal basis for negotiating a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis. In the event of a possible military confrontation should negotiations fail, Moscow and Beijing cannot simply look the other way and claim that they did their best to avoid this scenario.

It is the Iranian people who are forced to pay dearly for their regime’s megalomaniac ambitions, a fact that has mainly remained unnoticed in the midst of the international diplomatic quarrels that have surrounded the country’s suspected nuclear program.

Moreover, in the region Turkey has stepped in to exploit the situation by establishing economic and political partnerships with the Muslim countries of the Middle East and Northern Africa, further isolating Iran and its long-suffering people.

Dr. Fariborz Saremi is a commentator on TV and radio (German ARD/NDR TV,SAT 1,N24, Voice of America and Radio Israel) on Middle East issues and a contributer to FreePressers.com, WorldTribune.com and Defense&Foreign Affairs.

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