Amid the intensification of the Palestinian genocide, Iran has actively confronted Israel and contested US dominance in the Middle East. The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed himself the Leader of the Muslim World and employed the identity of Islam as a geopolitical narrative against Israel and the United States. This phenomenon contests the rationalist perspectives of Iran's ambition to augment its influence in the Middle East, as a war soundtrack predominantly tones as the strategic narrative.

Iran has strategically used Islam as a geopolitical narrative in the Israel-Palestinian conflict to assert its leadership in the Muslim world and challenge U.S. and Israeli influence in the Middle East. I explore how Iran’s Islamic identity shapes its foreign policy, using historical, national, and issue-based narratives to justify its stance and expand its regional influence.

Islam as Iranian’ Strategic Narrative

Narratives theoretically influence humans in their comprehension of the surrounding world. The communication process's structure is essential for several reasons, especially in acquiring power resources. Narratives can captivate individuals, leading them to particular actors, events, and interpretations that elucidate a nation's history or policy details. It also serves as a soft power resource, including culture, values, or policies that are appealing due to their alignment with an existing or evolving personal narrative. Strategic narratives encompass the creation, dissemination, and reception of concepts within the international system that various governments or actors employ to influence certain audiences (Roselle, 2014).

In Iran, Islam has predominantly emerged as its strategic narrative, deeply embedded in the state's ideological history, especially following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which resulted in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Kamrava, 2024). As an ideology, Islam is integral to the strategic narrative of the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He persistently advocated for the Palestinians as an Islamic cause and demonstrated its significance in leading the Islamic world. Consequently, it designated Israel as the "Little Satan" and the United States as the "Great Satan" in the context of the Middle East war.

Islam is used by its leader as a geopolitical narrative to encourage Iran to assume a prominent role in the Middle East conflict. This phenomenon is not new; it has occurred since ancient Iran, then known as Persia, during significant periods of the Islamic kingdom's history. Iran was the preeminent nation in western Asia for nearly twelve centuries, governed by three consecutive indigenous dynasties: the Achaemenid, the Parthian, and the Sasanian. During the pre-modern state era, spanning the 7th to 17th centuries, Islam significantly modified and influenced the Iranian worldview at various stages, becoming ingrained in the culture (Quandt & Mackey, 1996). The formation of the Abbasid Caliphate in 749 AD initiated a series of events, including the arrival of Turkic peoples from Central Asia in the 11th century, the incursion of the Mongols in the 13th century, and the presence of the Safavids in the 16th century, culminating in the catastrophic fall in 1722.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 meant the resurgence of endogenous culture following a prolonged hiatus during an era characterized by the dominance of the United States in cultural, economic, political, and social institutions under the Pahlavi regime. The Islamic Iranian revolution marked the inception of a significant political tragedy, wherein Islam emerged as a strategic narrative in Iran's foreign policy opposing Israel and U.S. hegemony.

Three Levels of Strategic Narratives

To comprehend how Iran employed Islam as a strategic narrative in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, three interrelated forms of strategic narratives at various levels must be considered. Initially, international system narratives elucidate the structure of the world, identify the key actors, and delineate its functioning. In this setting, Iran identified Western hegemony as its adversary. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the newly established Iranian government, under Ayatollah Khomeini, embraced an anti-Israeli and anti-American stance. They assert a definitive stance as Islamic leaders in the areas, opposing "arrogant" global powers and their regional partners that perpetrate oppression for their own benefit, especially the genocide of Palestinians.

Iran aims to position itself as a Muslim ally rather than as an Arab nation. Executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi, contends that Iran adopted a more assertive stance on the Palestinian issue to transcend the Arab-Persian and Sunni-Shia divides, so asserting its leadership in the Islamic world and placing U.S.-aligned Arab regimes in a defensive position. Consequently, it is not unexpected that Iran endorses a "Resistance Axis" of political and militant factions in many countries throughout the region, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, which similarly advocate for the Palestinian cause and view Israel as a principal adversary. In the context of international relations, Iran unequivocally positions itself as the Islamic leader in the Middle East conflict, demonstrating its antagonism to Israel and U.S. interests in the region.

Secondly, national narratives, or biographical narratives, delineate values and objectives rooted in the state's history. Islam has emerged as an alternate option in state creation following the 1979 Iranian revolution. In the framework of opposing dialectics, if not A, then B; in this context, if not the West (US), then Islam. The Iranian Revolution was achieved by involving diverse communities and social groups' interests, each with distinct interests, motivations, and aspirations for the future. Nonetheless, the essential inquiry is how the revolution transformed into an 'Islamic' revolution. I perceive the Iranian Revolution as not only a reaction to the Pahlavi regime but also to push away the hegemony of the United States. Thus, Islam emerged as a unifying force that fostered the establishment of a new epoch in Iran. Islam serves once more as a strategic narrative to elucidate the Iranians' perception of their histories. This aligns with the designation of the state, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thus, employing Islam as a strategic narrative to advocate for Palestinians embodies its national autobiography.

Third, the issue narratives. It questions why a policy is needed and normally desirable and how it will be successfully implemented or accomplished. The state can invoke the historical trajectory of state roles to aid foreign policymakers in legitimizing their current global position, thereby instilling confidence in the domestic audience regarding the necessity of the policy. The mechanisms for the revival of roles from a specific historical period are fundamentally embedded as an essential characteristic of the state. In the context of Iran, Ali Khamenei can be viewed as perpetuating the legacy of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who significantly influenced the Middle East conflict, consistently opposing the hegemony of Israel and the United States in foreign policy.

Before the recent ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians, tensions in the conflict between Iran and Israel escalated significantly following October 7, 2023. Both parties engaged in mutual missile warfare. Khamenei, in a rare statement, asserts that Iran's allies 'will not back down' in the conflict with Israel and pledges to continue combatting Israel while justifying his country's missile strike against its adversary. In his inaugural address to a large audience in Tehran, he discussed Iran's second attack on Israel, marking the first speech following the escalation of hostilities between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops into a full-scale war in Lebanon. He commended Hezbollah for delivering "a vital service to the entire region and the entire Islamic world." He has effectively articulated Islam as the spirit of the struggle.

Implication to the Muslim World

The utilization of Islam as the strategic narrative in Iran's foreign policy not only reflects their identity in continuing the legacy of the culture and civilization of Islam in the Arab-gulf continental. It is advantageous for Iran's positioning and aligns with its long-term strategic objectives to contest the dominance and influence of the United States in the region. On the other hand, the US has long viewed the Iranian Revolution as a catalyst for the resurgence of Islam in the contemporary state era. The term Islamism emerged to denote the intersection of Islam with political order, encompassing the ideologies of state and political parties that oppose Western influences. This concerns the US due to the rise of Islamic discourse as a state political force.

In the late 1970s, after the Iranian revolution, US proponents of the concept of "Islamist terror," comprising scholars, journalists, and observers, consistently portrayed Islam as a threat. They utilized contemporary events as evidence of this emerging form of terrorism, characterized by its irrationality, deviation from predictable patterns, and capacity for mass violence. Bernard Lewis, in "The Roots of Muslim Rage," asserts that there exists a "surge of hatred that distresses, alarms, and above all baffles Americans." He argues that this animosity transcends mere opposition to particular interests, actions, policies, or nations, evolving into a broader rejection of Western civilization. Lewis characterizes "Muslim rage" as indicative of a clash of civilizations.

In the same year, political scientist Samuel Huntington released a significant article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?" He asserts that ideological disparities between the West and Islam may lead to future conflict and warfare. He posits that ideology has supplanted economic interest as the primary factor driving conflict in the current phase of global politics. Accordingly, it is reasonable to assert that the concept of strategic narrative influences the foreign policy of certain nations, including Iran and the United States.

However, beyond constructivist perspectives, I suggest that using Islam as the ideology that drives foreign policy is not always advantageous to the Muslim world because each Muslim countries have different interests. Some countries might be more considerate to be rationalist and economic interests, even though they have some fractions of the same characteristics of culture or Islam as a religion. Yet, there is always some other fraction to divide.