“Today, the Islamic Republic is an independent, powerful and influential state regarding the issues of the region and the world at large—so much so that the US presidential candidates mentioned Iran 47 times in their election debates, while the frequency of references to countries like Russia and China was much less. This is a sign of profound changes in global equations,” Brigadier General Rasul Sanai-rad, the acting deputy commander of the Pasdaran, said Sunday.
He said this underscored Iran’s “determining role” in regional and international equations.
Many Iranian officials have pointed with pride over the years to the frequency with which Iran is mentioned in US political discourse, seeing that as evidence of Iran’s importance in the world. They do not necessarily point to what is said about Iran, but rather see quantity of mentions as a quality.
The fact that most of the comments about Iran implicitly categorize the Islamic Republic as an irresponsible state is ignored in the push to convince the Iranian people that the Islamic Republic is a major player on the global scene.
A few analysts have speculated that one reason Tehran continues its confrontations with the West is because many officials in the Islamic Republic take tremendous pride in the fact that Iran is a center of focus in the West and not ignored.
Back in the 1980s, Ayatollah Khomeini proudly asserted that President Ronald Reagan could not sleep soundly at night because he was so fearful of Iran—one version of this theme of Iran at the center of focus in the West. This was at a time when Democrats were complaining that Reagan slept right through major world problems because he had told his staff not to wake him at night with problems.