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ave more in common than you might imagine. All share the same aim: to control Arab states and prevent them from uniting. Earlier, they have been co-conspirators in that endeavour. The question is whether Iran truly is an enemy of US-Israel and a natural ally of the Arab world as the Iranian leadership works hard to portray.

The Persian-Arab rivalry goes back 1,400 years to the Muslim conquests when Persians embraced Islam. Today, Iranians wrap themselves in an Islamic flag in an effort to lead the Muslim world yet the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian New Year Norouz is still Iran’s most celebrated festival.

If Iranians were true friends of Arabs, they would not impede Arabic being spoken or the construction of Sunni mosques when Shiite mosques and synagogues proliferate. The Iranian government also bans parents from giving traditional Arab names to their newborns. It should be remembered too that Tehran still occupies UAE islands, refuses demands from the Arab population of Al-Ahwaz (Khuzestan) for autonomy, has territorial claims on Bahrain and threatens airlines that use “Arabian Gulf” instead of “Persian Gulf” with being barred from Iranian airspace. With friends like these, who needs enemies!