The "constitutive outside" of the Islamic Republic of Iran is no longer the U.S., on the contrary, after Israel, Iran has become one of the countries with which the U.S. has the greatest military cooperation. The U.S. is also a major sponsor of Shiite militia groups and the Quds Force, which is active in Iraq and Syria, and serves under Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. For instance, all of the military supplies and vehicles in a recent photo that was taken in Tikrit showing Soleimani and the militia under his command were American.
As the Syrian opposition enters the fifth year of its struggle for a freer and more honorable life, CIA Director John Brennan's and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's consecutive remarks have explicitly illustrated the state of the U.S.-Iran alliance. Brennan said, "None of us, Russia, the United States, the coalition [against Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham], and regional states, wants to see a collapse of the government and political institutions in Damascus," which was followed by a complementary remark by Kerry, who stated that they "have to negotiate" with President Bashar Assad in order to end the war in Syria. Even the fact that the question of "What does the U.S.'s policy toward Syria have to do with Iran?" has become irrelevant gives an idea about the extent of such an alliance.
Until people overthrew dictators and brought the administrations that they desired to power during the Arab Spring, the U.S. had presented Turkey as a "model country." However, things turned sour when parties that were not desired by the U.S. and Israel came to power. With dictators such as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi gaining courage, administrations were toppled through coups, like in Egypt, or they were immobilized, as in Tunisia. While the military fascist orders, with which the West has joined hands, are presented as if they were there to "restore democracy," Turkey has been classified as an "authoritarian country." The U.S.-Iran alliance has emerged from such a conjuncture.
Today, Iran, which is under a U.S. protectorate, has come to dominate four Arab countries - Iraq, Syria, Yemen and a major part of Lebanon. After Houthi rebels seized power in Sana'a, Yemen, Ali Reza Zakani, a member of the Iranian parliament, said: "Three Arab capitals have today ended up in the hands of Iran and belong to the Islamic Iranian revolution," adding that Sana'a has become the fourth Arab capital that is on its way to joining the Iranian revolution. Furthermore, during a recent conference on Iranian identity, Ali Younesi, a senior advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said in a more uninhibited manner that Baghdad is the capital of their growing empire.
Younesi's following remarks, which send out "goodness" to the region, are significant in seeing that this imperialistic ambition and the expansionist desire to export this revolution are not limited to four countries alone: "We will defend all the peoples of the region [the Middle East], because we consider them as a part of Iran. We will fight Islamic extremism, Takfiris [apostates], atheists, neo-Ottomans, Wahhabists, the West and Zionism."
The constitutive outside of this frightful idea of a neo-Persian empire is Turkey, because it is the only country that can stand against coups and is far removed from the dictatorships in the Middle East. Younesi also proved this when he said, "Our competitors, the historical heirs of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Ottomans resent our support for Iraq," adding that they will establish an Iranian union against them in the region.
Although Turkey is one of the few countries that defends democratic administrations in the Middle East and keeps a clear distance between itself and extremist organizations, unlike Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is presented as if it has an aspiration for "neo-Ottomanism." As the protector of organizations that were proven to commit crimes against humanity by killing Sunni civilians in Iraq and Syria, Iran has been able to establish a "neo-Persian Empire" in the midst of this turmoil.
