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As soon as the 2020 New Year's bell rang, three missiles flew to the international airport in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, with lightning speed.
A few hours later, news spread that shocked the world: Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's intelligence agency, had been killed by a U.S. missile.
It is reported that General Soleimani had drawn up a large number of infiltration plans against the United States and Israel before being bombed by US missiles. Therefore, the U.S. military must get rid of him in order to warn the Iranian government behind it.
In fact, Iran is by no means the country with the best geographical location in the Middle East. Since the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the people of this country have been living under US sanctions for a long time, and the social climate in Iran is generally relatively conservative.
But it is this seemingly most conservative country that has become America's fierce rival in the Middle East......
A major city in the Middle East that cannot be ignored
Like the vast majority of countries in the Middle East today, there is a large amount of desert land in Iran. To date, Iran's total desert area accounts for about a quarter of the country's total territory.
But Iran has a very different culture from other Arab countries. As the main part of the ancient Persian Empire, Iran's lingua franca and some cultural habits were different from those of the Arab countries, which also created Iran's embarrassing position in the Middle East.
Until the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution, the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran was politically extremely Western-leaning.
Specifically, the Pahlavi dynasty was more biased towards the British. When Iran conducts international oil trade, the United Kingdom is also a priority for Iran to protect the deal. Such a situation made Britain's ally, the United States, quite unhappy,
As a result, the United States intends to prop up a pro-American regime in Iran, but the Americans will soon realize what a grave mistake they have made.
In 1978, Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Shiite Muslim religion in Iran, launched the Islamic Revolution with the support of the Americans, which shocked the world.
According to the script set by the Americans, Khomeini will then lead the Iranian government to make a series of concessions to the United States, and will closely follow the steps of the United States diplomatically. However, after Khomeini took power in Iran, he immediately raised the banner of "anti-American".
In January 1979, a group of angry Iranian students broke through the curfew of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and imprisoned the U.S. diplomats working there. It was only at this moment that the United States came to its senses: it turned out that Khomeini did not regard the United States as a friend of Iran from the very beginning.
After several failed rescue operations, then-US President Jimmy Carter had to bow his head to Iran's new government. After making the United States pay the price, Khomeini's Iranian government released the American diplomats.
Since then, Iran has taken root in the U.S. sanctions list. Over the past few decades, no matter how many administrations the United States has changed, each US administration has not released a signal that it will ease sanctions against Iraq.
Although Iran has had several political leaders who have tried to reconcile diplomatically with the West, their efforts have ultimately failed despite the hardline attitude of the United States and the Western bloc.
After several encounters, Iran has completely abandoned its intention of rapprochement with the United States. As a result, the confrontation between Iran and the United States has become more and more intense.
Iran's way out of the game
Due to the decades-long economic blockade imposed by the United States on Iran, Iran's largest exports to other countries still include basic energy sources such as oil and natural gas, and ordinary Iranians do not live comfortably.
In addition to oil and gas energy, Iran's most famous exports are wool carpets and wool textiles. However, due to the aging of Iran's industrial equipment, these products have never been able to achieve the goal of large-scale exports.
Because Iran's situation is very similar to that of North Korea, which has been under an economic blockade between the United States and the Western bloc, both countries have chosen to prioritize military in all their work. This has led to Iran's breathtaking military-industrial capabilities today.
Today, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps not only has the ability to export weapons to the outside world, but also has the ability to independently develop weapons. Many of the missiles and infantry vehicles used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were developed in-house.
Of course, as an Islamic state, Iran will naturally combine its military power with religious influence to form its own unique advantage in the Middle East.
Iran's enemies, in addition to the United States, include a large number of Islamic Sunni countries in the Middle East. In order to expand the influence of Shia Muslims, Iran continues to send weapons to Shiite Muslim forces on the Arabian Peninsula every year.
Divisive vassal forces such as Allah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen have very close ties with Iran.
To a certain extent, these local armed forces supported by Iran are also responsible for fighting for Iran's international discourse and living space.
As the leader of the Shiite Muslim state, every point of Shia power increases, so does Iran's living space.
Slowly, Iran formed a sphere of influence under the suppression and blockade of the United States. This area, occupied by the Shia Muslim community, is also known to international political scientists as the "Shiite arc."
It is precisely because of the existence of the "Shiite Arc" that Iran has grown from an adversary that was not valued by the United States at all at the beginning, to one of the two leading countries in the Islamic world in the Middle East today.
Iran's game
And in broader international relations, Iran has strengthened its cooperation with China and Russia in the years it has been blockaded by the United States.
As recently as mid-March 2024, China, Russia and Iran just held a joint maritime military exercise in the waters off the Gulf of Oman.
And Iran's friendly relations with China and other countries go far beyond that. As early as last year, Iran resumed normal diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Sunni Muslim countries in the Middle East, under China's mediation.
This marks a thaw in relations between Iran and Sunni Muslim countries.
As a result, Iran's only enemies are the United States and the Western bloc. In the future, Iran will also be able to spare more energy and funds to deal with the Western bloc, which is an outcome that the United States and its allies do not want to see.
What's more, Iran is not as conservative as people seem. Although there is a very strong Islamic culture in the country, Iran is not completely insensitive to the outside world.
While Iran is developing diplomatic relations with countries such as China and Russia, foreign people are also traveling to Iran more and more often. The booming tourism industry has also objectively driven the overall momentum of Iran's economy.
When things have developed to this point, Iran has finally gradually escaped the economic trap carefully set for them by the United States, and has become more and more powerful and has an international voice. This is also the reason why the United States does not dare to move Iran lightly.
International diplomatic relations are, in the final analysis, a balance between confrontation and cooperation. Iran has clearly made its own choice in the context of the new era.
In the future, Iran's fate will be as prosperous as that of other developing countries around the world, because the era of world political multipolarity is accelerating.
Iran's rise has fully proved that every country should have its own way of survival. Only a nation that is not afraid of difficulties can have a foothold of its own in this world.
However, in the final analysis, every country has the right to develop equally, and no country should use malicious sanctions to stifle the development of other countries. This is not only the aspiration of the international community, but also the basic rule of today's world.
Bibliography:
1. Iran officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization!
2. The reporter of the main station directly hit the Iranian people: The United States ignores the rights of other countries and commits numerous human rights crimes Huasheng Online
3. The navies of China, Iran and Russia will hold joint exercises overseas network