Iran’s Ultimate Middle East Power Play

There was little doubt by late September 2019 that Iran’s clerical leadership was truly in command of the dynamic of the transformation of the Persian Gulf region. The crux of the Iranian regional strategy – including the Iran-sponsored rôle of the Houthi pre-dawned unmanned aerial vehicle strikes on Saudi Arabian oil facilities on September 14, 2019 – became increasingly clear as the shock of those strikes began to be absorbed. Tehran was playing a masterful game, delicately balancing between its publicized confrontation…