Iran And Syria Relation After The Islamic Revolution (1979-)

Iran and Syria are countries of great importance in the Middle East. The two countries keep firm alliance since 1982 when they officially became alliance, especially during the Syria civil war, when Iran continuously help and support Syria. This essay will dig into these various elements that promote their alliance and keep it for more than 30 years. Since the founding of Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, their relation has developed from limited rapprochement to cooperation, and then formal alliance. But their relation is not always rising, there will be a fall or estranged relation. Beside that, the essay have sorted Iran and Syria relations with Lebanon and Iraq respectively, which enables readers to learn about the formation of the Shia influence, namely the Shiite Crescent: Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon (Hizebollah). This was mainly because of the majority Shiite people gained power in Iraq after the Iraqi War. Thus, alliance of Iran and Syria is not only a relation between these two countries, rather, it helped to form a geopolitical entity to resist other regional powers and the Sunnis. Along with the shiite rising, disputes between Shiah and Sunni escalate. Seen from the regional aspect, the Syria civil war become a proxy war of Shiah and Sunni-the Shiah side lead by Iran support Syria government army; Saudi Arabia and Gulf monarchies in name of Sunni support the opposition forces. While seen from the global aspect, this war has even become a hidden proxy war stand by the US and Turkey who is for Sunni and Russia for Shiah. That is, development of this war and the most important axis of the "shia Crescent"-Iran Syria relation plays an decisive role in the whole Middle East restructuring of power, and also crucial for extraterritorial powers’ position in this region.