The rise of Iran in the beginning of the twenty-first century is the most profound and significant event in the Gulf and the whole Middle East. Many factors contributed to such a course. Firstly, Saddam’s regime in Iraq and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the two most formidable regional enemies of Iran, were both overthrown by the United States. Secondly,
Iran expanded its influence in the Middle East and Central Asia through Persian culture and Shiite faith. King Abdullah of Jordan expressed his concerns in December 2004 about an emerging "Shiite Crescent," beginning in Iran and extending through southern Iraq to Syria and Lebanon. Actually, a Shiite-cum-Persian Gulf belt exists and has played a pro-Iranian role in the Arab countries in the Gulf since the Islamic Revolution. One of the results of the Iraq War was to link the Shiite-cum-Persian Gulf belt
more seamlessly together in southern Iraq.