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After Seeing Arab Spring as an Opportunity, Iran Meets a Largely Closed Door in Egypt
- (AP-Washington Post) Iran once saw the Arab Spring uprisings as a prime opportunity, hoping it would open the door for it to spread its influence in countries whose autocratic leaders long shunned Tehran's ruling clerics. Yet in Egypt, Iran has been met with the deep mistrust felt by many in the mainly Sunni Muslim country toward the non-Arab Shiites - as well as Cairo's reluctance to sacrifice good relations with Iran's rivals, the U.S. and the oil-rich Arab nations of the Gulf. In a sign of the mistrust, Egyptian security and religious authorities have raised an alarm in recent weeks that Iran was trying to promote Shiism in the country. "Arab Spring revolts have been a disaster for Iran," said Michael W. Hanna, a Middle East expert from New York's Century Foundation. "It wants to ride those revolts as an extension of its own revolution back in 1979, but it is not happening."