Dubai/Abu Dhabi: An Iranian crescent has spread from Tehran across the region, increasing Iran’s power both in hard-and soft-power terms, analysts say.

“Iran’s influence has exceeded its limits and has become by the definition of some Iranian officials, domination, and — in some cases — an occupation, as is the case in Syria and Iraq,” Ali Bakeer, an Ankara-based Arab researcher in international affairs, told Gulf News on Monday.

“A decade ago, the fear of a Shiite crescent sought by Iran was described as a myth,” he said. “Today, those who criticised those fears realised they are wrong,” adding that Iranian troops and militias are located on the ground in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

“Iran’s influence has greatly spread over the past 12 years since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003,” Dr Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a leading Emirati political analyst, told Gulf News. “Its hegemonic control stretched to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen. Had it not been stopped, we would see Iran’s influence spreading to the Gulf countries, especially with the American blessing as part of a nuclear deal with Tehran. The question now is would Iran be able to pay the political, military and financial price for such hegemonic control?”

That’s an opinion echoed by Dr Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser to Risk Insurance Management, a Dubai-based consultancy involving assessments and remedies.

“Iran is clearly implementing a plan to further influence and control Arab countries surrounding the GCC states,” he said. “Tehran’s clear support for the Al Houthi government in Sana’a is the latest manifestation. That the Yemen events and Iran’s push in Iraq and the rest of the Levant is occurring during the apex of the P5+1 talks shows that the conservatives may give in on an agreement because of these so called territorial gains.”

However, some Arab analysts including those based in Tehran expressed a different opinion.

Mohammad Sadeghian, an Iraqi writer who heads the Arab centre for Iranian studies in Tehran, told Gulf News he believes people should look to Iran as a “big country from the region and not as an intruder”.

“If we look at Iran as a country from the region that has its own capabilities and interests in the region, then the fear from an Iranian influence is unjustifiable,” he said. “But if we believe that Iran is an intruder to the region, then, surely the fear from an Iranian role is justifiable,” he told Gulf News.

He stressed that Iran is not an isolated country in the region and it has “its own interests with its own “definition of national security.”

While he noted the interference of foreign powers in the region, in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, he added it’s not helpful to overstate “Tehran’s influence in the region or in a certain country”.