ABSTRACT
“Both the challenge of Revolutionary Iran and the response of other Middle Eastern states to Iran’s challenge are multidimensional,” wrote Professor R. K. Ramazani in his authoritative book on Islamic Iran’s foreign policy and its regional repercussions. Therefore, he went on, “an exclusive emphasis on the military, ideological, or political aspects of these phenomena will not adequately explain them.” This general observation is particularly true in the case of the Iranian-Syrian relationship. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the hostility between the Ba’th regimes in Syria and the shah’s regime in Iran was a constant feature of Middle Eastern politics. Right from the start, Iran encouraged Syria to apply military pressure against Iraq in order to increase the latter’s sense of insecurity and tie down as many Iraqi troops as possible along the Iraqi-Syrian border. The Syrians responded positively, particularly in the early stage of the war.
