The problem lies in the fact that irans tactics for opposing western influence is to quite literally sow chaos and anarchy and factional infighting in otherwise functional countries. It has created a shit tonne of resentment in the Arab world.
Whilst the west is critical of Saudi Arabia for the Yemeni crisis, much of the Arab world blames Iran.
Irans idea of hegemonic opposition is to give militiamen ballistic missiles to fire at population centres who are also Muslims and not even western.
Ultimately this is a bit of an own goal. Take for example Syria, which is ruled by the Alawi who have a natural disposition towards Iranian Shia’s despite being much more secular in nature. Well after the way Iranian proxies “assisted” bashar, they’ve alienated most of the Syrian population.
Irans geopolitical strategy should have been to provide an alternative power base to the American led system and try to bridge sectarian divides, instead it alienates its potential Arab partners by having its militiamen running around causing chaos and anarchy.
There's plenty to criticize about Iran and I positively hate its backward, theocratic regime.
It's holding back a wonderful people with one of the oldest and greatest civilizations the world's ever known, and more history in their pinkie than the US and many other countries in the world could ever dream of. The sooner the Iranians get rid of them, the better.
I'm not really onboard with this common, oversimplified western rhetoric used to paint Iran as the pantomime villain in the region who wakes up every day with only one thought in mind "Whose day I'm gonna ruin today?". It fits a bit too nicely with the widespread vision of the brown savages who only want to blow shit up. Because that's who they are and what they do.
The reality is that Iran has been under siege and an unprecedented embargo since 1979, the Islamic Revolution being ironically a direct consequence of the West's meddling. The US purposefully let the Shah they put in place be overthrown, when he ceased to be useful. Iran went from trustful ally to the worst thing since Hitler the moment it stopped aligning with the US views on the region. Saddam Hussein was encouraged and massively backed by the US and the West to launch and wage its war against Iran. There's been constant assassinations campaigns supported by the West and carried out by Israel.
You then have the fact that Iran is majoritarily Shiite, which automatically makes it an enemy for the Sunni regimes in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia who always likes to posture as the guardian and defender of Islam (as if). SA always had Iran in its crosshairs and considered it as the mortal enemy in the region, for both strategical and ideological reasons. The animosity between the two kinda went down a bit, thanks to China's recent mediation, but it's fragile and doesn't serve the US or Israel's interests at all. And Bin Salman will stab them in the back at the first opportunity.
Then you have Israel, and I don't need to remind you of the love affair between the two.
Iran has been in a fight for survival on all fronts for 45 years, against overwhelming odds. It must do so without any capacity to project any of its military power due to the international sanctions. Without the spider web in the region it patiently wove in the last four decades, indeed using sectarian divisions in the region, Iran would've been toast. Just like Iraq, Syria or Lybia.
They're still not out of the woods, only acquiring nukes will. Banking on a shitload of missiles and distributing them, was in retrospect their only way to go since they don't have any Navy or Air Force one can decently speak of.
The Syrian Civil war is a direct byproduct of the US invasion of Iraq which gave birth to ISIS. The latter is part of the uprising against the Syrian regime, alongside many other extremist groups. Bashar Al Assad just doesn't belong to the good dictators the US usually supports and protects. He turned to Iran and Russia, which makes it a reason good enough to get rid of him. That's why the US, and more importantly Israel, wanted and still want him gone. Does that make him a good guy? Hell no, and the resentment the Syrian population harbors against him is completely justified.
I fully understand what you're saying, but Iran can't afford it when its own existence is at stake and the rest of the Arab countries in the region agreed to always disagree. The sectarian divides are thousands of years old and have been fuelled for centuries by major powers who have every interest in keeping it that way. Solely pinning the blame on Iran is just narrow-minded and wilfully ignoring the local dynamics that have been at play for centuries.
That's not something you can solve on your own when your house is burning. Due to its own interpretation of Islam, there never was a chance for Iran to wear the mantle of the unifiers. That role could only realistically land in Turkey but Erdogan is a backward blowhard. The only chance for the muslim world to become what it aspires to be, is to go past its divisions, find a modern interpretation of a religion in desperate need of one, and then completely leave it out of politics. After that, show a united front with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran as the main protagonists. But that's not going to happen anytime soon.
The first thing towards mending the situation in the Middle-East would be for the West to treat Iran and Israel as normal countries and fecking get the US out of there. They are locusts and a plague in the region. Nothing will change as long as these leeches are hanging around.
