World recognizing Iran as major regional power
By Hossein Ziaee*
In her recent address to German lawmakers in the Bundestag, Chancellor Angela Merkel described Iran, along with Russia, as a major developing regional power in the Middle East.
She made the remarks while presenting her analysis of international developments and, particularly, of the Middle East to German MPs.
Merkel stressed that Iran’s role and influence in the Middle East have significantly increased following the country’s extensive efforts to this end, recent international developments and, in particular, the recent US withdrawal of its troops from Syria.
This comes as Kersten Knipp, a prominent German analyst, in an interview with his country’s media stressed that Iran has become a regional power, while Tehran is under the severest economic sanctions and political and military pressures imposed and exerted by its enemies such as the United States and Israel.
He said Iran’s military superiority is the most important feature of its regional power and influence in the Middle East.
Global acknowledgement of and deference toward Iran’s superior power after the withdrawal of the defeated American troops from Syria has currently become the first headline of the world media and the main topic of discussions between international politicians and analysts.
The truth is that at present, powerful regional players such as China, Iran, Russia and India are capable of tipping global equations in their favor more than ever while, on the one hand, the US is undergoing the same fate that the waning 20th-century power, Great Britain, suffered, and on the other, multilateralism is growing strongly in the world.
This is while, Iran is achieving growing international recognition as a superior regional power day after day.
Currently, even those countries opposing Iran have placed on their agenda working out an “effective formula” to adapt themselves to the Islamic Republic’s rising power despite all obstacles to the process and difficulties involved.
At the time being, according true respect to Iran’s rights in different international areas in proportion to the Islamic Republic’s real status as a “reliable regional power” will, more than ever, clear the path for constructive cooperation between Tehran and its former opponents.
* Hossein Ziaee is a freelance Iranian journalist.