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Iran thinks it will benefit from the wave of unrest sweeping
the Middle East, no matter how it turns out, a senior Iranian diplomat
said. “The equations of power would be changed,” said the diplomat, who
asked not to be named. “There will be fewer and fewer countries
listening to the United States.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has talked in apocalyptic terms
about the Arab uprisings. He said in Tehran last week, “changes will be
forthcoming and will engulf the whole world from Asia to Africa and
from Europe to North America.”

But the Iranian diplomat’s comments are a glimpse into a more
measured strategic thinking — harder to dismiss as mere politicking. “If
the regime in Egypt collapses,” the diplomat said, “then U.S. influence
will collapse. We now face a region with a different situation. The
picture of the region will be changed.”

He added: “The way things are moving ahead, we may be facing, in the
near future, a region where countries are saying similar things on such
issues as U.S. influence, nuclear issues, peace and security.” The
result would be that “there will be approaches and ideas more similar to
that of Iran — a more Oriental and Islamic and Arabic approach.”

His comments mirrored what some U.S. analysts have bee... >>>