HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Persia is the origin of one of the oldest civilisations in the world. A Land home to diverse cultures was historically majoritarianly zorastrian yet Muslim invasions led to rapid Islamicisation of Iran.
Shifting to 20th century. Mohammad Mossadegh who was an elected president was widely popular due to his policies of nationalisation of Iran’s oil reserves. However he was overthrown in a coup having backing of US and UK. An puppet leader took control of Iran going by the name of Reza shah. Mr. Shah worked on improving Iran’s economy by creating infrastructure projects and making a more open and progressive society. However he was more regressive on his political opponents and with Iran being an oil based economy. Due to increase in oil prices there was a major influx of FDI. Which lead to inflation and greater unemployment. Conditions were ripe for a revolution and Ali Khomeini took centre stage. The initiated Islamic Revolution also termed as Iran spring led to Mr. Khomeini forming government. But it is interesting to see Iran’s rise as a power
PROXY INTERVENTION
In 1970s Iraq invaded Iran under the leadership of saddam hussain. Even though war ended in a stale mate as both the nation’s had to pull out of the captured territories on either side. Iranian authorities realised it was imperative to create a comprehensive security policy and a action plan to counter national security threats. This lead to creation of Qudz force which was an elite unit for extraterritoral and clandestine operations. Under this force Iran started proxy intervention across the region. The first experiment was done in Lebanon with creation of Hezbollah which was armed and funded directly by Iran . The experiment was highly successful as Both Americans an Israelis had to pull out of Lebanon. One Individual growing through the military circuit was general Qaseem soleimani.
General soleimani took control of qudz force. He was a brilliant tactician and started establishing and dispersing shiate millitants across the middle East. He was an active supporter of Bashar al Assad and went to the extent of convincing Russia to invade Syria to take control of regions which were then under control of rebels. This was highly successful as Mr soleimani took control of significant parts of southern Aleppo. General Soleimani was instrumental in fight against ISIL. The network of covert shiate millitant groups created are extremely strong and have major influence on the stability of region however Iran’s policy of proxy intervention has prevented penetration of Isis across Iranian border.
ENERGY QUOTIENT AND STRATEGIC LOCATION
Iran is the world’s largest exporter of natural gas . It has the 3rd largest proven oil reserves in the world. It is the 2nd largest oil contributor to OPEC. Thus Iran has build itself as an Energy superpower.Making it difficult for its enemies to isolate it
Another thing that makes Iran strategically important is it’s location.
With the control of strait of hormuz it controls major oil trade thus one of its major defense mechanism during any crisis is to close strait of hormuz. At a time when OPEC and oil market is going through a turbulent phase. Iran’s location adds value to it’s importance. In India’s prism chabahar port project is strategically important with direct access to Afghanistan and chabahar will also act as a monitoring station of gwadar.
Chabahars location in sistan and baluchestan province of Iran is essential for India’s strategic design for Pakistan Balochistan. Thus co-operation with Iran is essential
CONCLUSION
Iran has an active nuclear program and a major proxy network. Thus it will be stupid to ignore Iran. Inspite of the fact that the civilian population of Iran is living in a regressive regime and Iran’s economy being in bad shape it has still managed to carve out itself as a major geopolitical player.
Geopolitical Matrix 