ABSTRACT
The third era in Persian foreign relations in the Middle East started since the creation of the first nation-state in Modern Persia in 1502, and this monarchical system survived until the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty of 1979. Therefore, Iran was under the reign of the centralizing powers of the Safavid and the Afshārid Empires, followed by the Zand, the Qājār as well as the Pahlavi dynasties. During the Safavids, mainly until the fall of Shāh Abbās I, and the Afshārid Empires under the rule of Nāder Shāh, Persia was a pillar of the regional and the international orders. This trend changed during the late Safavids as well as the Zand, the Qājār and the Pahlavi dynasties. As a result, Persia became subordinate of the international structure. Therefore, Modern Iran’s relations in the Middle East since the rise of the Safavid Empire until the demise of the Pahlavi dynasty were cooperative and positive, while it was quasi-negative during the pre-Battle of Čaldiran of 1514 and post-WWII up to the 1953 Iranian coup d’état.
