Here is how Hossein Mousavian, Tehran’s former Ambassador to the US, explains Iran’s policy: After the revolution, Iran was invaded by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and, for much of the past decade, chaos on its thousands of miles of borders with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – all factors that have compelled it to play a regional role.
“Consequences of nixing the Iran deal,” The Arab Daily News, Ghassan Michel Rubeiz, October 11, 2017.