ABSTRACT
The chapter answers the following questions: What are the domestic and regional factors that shaped Bashar al-Assad’s presidency between 2000 and 2010? What motivated Iran’s foreign policy after 2003? How did Iran identify its national interests after the uprising started in Syria in 2011? This chapter details Iran’s security and strategic calculus, and how its partnership with Syria is a central factor in its regional outlook and resistance to US regime change policy and intervention in the internal affairs of MENA states.
