In a previous article, I suggested that the Arab regional geopolitical reality is marked by a combination of key regional non-Arab roles and interventions in addition to untraditional and significant roles by non-state actors. This reality results in a geopolitical split between two camps are the moderate camp and the extremist and radical camp affiliated with Iran.

Those are the hallmarks of the geopolitical reality of the Middle Eastern region including mainly the Arab region and Iran. Moreover, there is, in this regard, an essential religious dimension in this region’s geopolitical reality. This religious dimension is of key importance, as it provides a ground, and a shape from another perspective, for the geopolitical split in the region between a Sunni camp characterized by pragmatism and moderation, and an Iranian-led Shiite camp characterized by extremism and radicalism. Here, I should be clear that the regional split is definitely based on a geopolitical foundation, and is basically of geopolitical nature, while the religious factor constitutes a key part within this geopolitical system.

Iran, the regional geopolitical pole leading and sponsoring the extremist regional camp, basically adopts and uses the extremist rhetoric and the Shiite ground for its expansion in the region, primarily in the Arab region between the Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. In this regard, Iran considers the Shiite populations in the region as forward bases for its policy, project and influence in the region, exploiting their religious affiliation and affinity, as it is a key center for Shiite preaching and religious figures, at the international level. Therefore, Iran actually reaches and supports, spiritually and temporally, those Shiite populations, as it is well known especially in the Arab region. In addition, Iran adopts a keen policy of Shiite conversion of the poorest Sunni populations, especially in Syria, using the means of financial aid. This policy has become widely noticeable in the region, and there are some detailed reports and studies on this subject.

These facts led some regional parties to talk about the ‘Shiite crescent,’ which is a term used to call the Iranian regional camp, or the regional zone marking the Iranian regional influence between the Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. In this regard, as the affiliation of the Shiite Hezbullah in Lebanon with Iran is normal and understandable, the same affiliation of Hamas, which is an extreme cynical action by Hamas due to the Iranian financial and military support, is quite non-understandable and unacceptable for the regional Sunni parties. In addition, the inclusion of Syria, which is a country of Sunni majority, in the Iranian camp, through its non-Sunni ruling regime, is extremely controversial in the region’s geopolitics. This is actually a key paradox of the current regional geopolitics.

Hence, there is a key religious dimension included in the geopolitical situation of the region, and within the geopolitical system of the current split and struggle in the region. This reality has its own paradoxes, which add to the complexity of the Middle East’s current geopolitics.