Ali Ansari, an academic,believes Iran is losing vital political chips
Iran Loses Clout in Arab World -Scott Peterson
Six months after Iran's contested presidential election, a new narrative is arising around the Arab world in which Iran is no longer a political demigod.
Beset in recent months by the bloody spectacle of regime enforcers stamping out pro-democracy protests, and by dozens of deaths, torture, and allegations of rape in secret prisons, Iran is losing influence among some of its friends in the region.
Many analysts believe the autocratic crackdowns in Iran may mark the end of a years-long arc of expanding Iranian and Shiite prominence across a wide swath of the Arab world.
"I think we have seen the peak of the Islamic Republic's power in its current configuration," says Ali Ansari [pictured above], director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Iran's influence has "slipped very badly," he said.
(Christian Science Monitor)
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