IF IRAN FALLS, ISIS MAY RISE AGAIN
THE UNITED STATES FOR FOUR DECADES HAS made little secret of its desire to see Iran’s revolutionary Shiite Islamic Republic fail, something that could now prove a win for Washington’s interests in a region where its policies have more recently been defined by successive setbacks.
Far from bringing peace to the Middle East, however, a significant escalation of demonstrations shaking Iran or any major foreign intervention could end up empowering an even greater enemy—the Islamic State militant group. The organization better known as ISIS rose up years ago from the death and destruction ravaging Iraq and Syria and the jihadis have since sought to tap into movements battling the Iranian government from within, and make good on external forces pushing the country toward implosion.
The Islamic Republic’s enemies both at home and abroad benefit from the current chaos across the country, but even Tehran’s foes fear that the instability could create the conditions for ISIS to breed.
“Different groups hostile to the Iranian government, including ISIS, separatists or other ones, have and will take advantage of any unrest in the country,” Abas Aslani, a visiting scholar at the Istanbul-based, non-profit, non-partisan Center for Middle East.
