In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Friday, foreign policy experts Dennis Ross, Eric Edelman, and Ray Tayekh argued that “the theocratic Iranian regime and its attempt to upend the regional order remains the United States’ most consequential long-term challenge in the Middle East.”

The op-ed notes that after 9/11, Iran cooperated with the United States in Afghanistan, but that its help was prompted by a “fear of being the next target of U.S. retribution.” Once the regime no longer feared an American strike, “Iran proceeded to lacerate U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan by providing munitions and sanctuary to various militias.”

Rather than potential partner state that may share common interests with the U.S., “Iran sees a unique opportunity to project its influence and undermine the United States and its system of alliances.”

Turning their attention Iraq and Syria, Ross, Edelman and Tayek argue:

Today, in the two central battlefronts of the Middle East — Syria and Iraq — Iran’s interests are inimical to those of the United States. Iran’s stake in Syria has been made clear by its provision of money, oil, arms, advisers and, most important, Hezbollah shock troops to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The United States’ interests, meanwhile, strongly argue against working with Iran against the Islamic State in Syria lest we lose the very Sunni support that will be necessary to eradicate the group. By taking a firm stand in Syria against both Assad and the Islamic State, we can send a strong signal to Iran’s leaders that the price for its troublemaking is going to rise.

Similarly in Iraq, any putative alliance with Iran would undo much of what the United States has attempted to accomplish there — the creation of a pluralistic, unitary state that does not represent a threat to itself or its neighbors and which is not a base for terrorism. The only way that President Obama’s objective of not only “degrading” but also “destroying” the Islamic State can be achieved is by taking back, over time, much of the territory seized by its fighters in Nineveh and Anbar provinces. This will require not only airstrikes in support of the Kurdish pesh merga troops and Iraqi security forces but also significant buy-in from the Sunni tribes who formed the backbone of the uprising against al-Qaeda during the surge. In addition, the sine qua non of the administration’s policy is an inclusive government in Iraq that can draw support from neighboring Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both of these will be unattainable if there is a perception that the United States is seeking a de facto alliance with Iran.

The op-ed concludes that the mutual interest Iran and the United States have in defeating ISIS “should not blind us to the enduring threat that the mullahs represent.”

Despite last year’s election of President Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime has not moderated in any meaningful fashion. During Rouhani’s tenure, Iran’s human rights record has not improved and may even have worsened. Last week, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reaffirmed Iran’ s support of Syria, while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently blasted Iran for its failure to answer concerns about military aspects of its nuclear research.

In The Minority Strategy: A New Path for American Interests in the Middle East, published in the July 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Gabriel Scheinmann observed:

Of course, the largest obstacle to a minority peace is, like everything else in the region, the Iranian regime. By perverting Shiism into a revolutionary, expansionist, and nihilist creed, the regime can only maintain its rule through vehement anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. Leading the largest Shiite state, it has fashioned alliances with the dominant Shia populations in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, forging a powerful anti-Israel bloc. Until the regime is dethroned, its ideology and activities will continue to block any cooperative relationship with the West, even in the face of recent Sunni jihadist advances in Syria and Iraq.

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