Iran gained nothing from the long bloodbath of the Iran-Iraq War and subsequently avoided all direct military confrontations. The Iranians finance and arm local movements from Iraq to Yemen and have sent their Revolutionary Guards to help their allies in Syria and Lebanon, but so far they have been careful not to invade any country. Iran has recently become the regional hegemon not by dint of any brilliant battlefield victory but rather by default. Its two main enemies—the United States and Iraq—became embroiled in a war that destroyed both Iraq and the American appetite for Middle Eastern
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