If one thing could scuttle Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani's big plan - to fix Iran's economy by winning some relief from
Western sanctions - a U.S. strike on Tehran's ally Syria is it.
Rouhani's June election landslide won him the
cautious backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to pursue his pledge
to engage with Western countries and attempt to ease Iran's isolation over
Tehran's nuclear program.
Syria is Iran's sole regional ally, and Western
foes say Tehran is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with arms, cash
and Revolutionary Guardsmen to train militia to help win the civil war.
A U.S. strike on Syria would spell "the
end of a diplomacy aimed at reducing tensions with the West and reconciliation
with the world," wrote Sadeq Zibakalam, a professor at Tehran University,
in Etemad, another reformist newspaper, last week.
"The atmosphere between Syria's allies and
the West, after a Western attack on Syria, will become so cold and dark that
there would be practically no space for reducing tensions and improving
relations ... Iran will be forced to change its tone towards the West to a
hostile one."
