Prof. Gholamreza Haddad argues Iran, not Israel, is acting expansionist and that Tehran’s behavior is driving Arab states toward cooperation with Israel.
In a November 26 appearance on Entekhab’s YouTube channel, Iranian international relations professor Gholamreza Haddad challenged the regime’s long-standing narrative about Israel. He warned that pursuing a nuclear weapon without a second-strike capability would amount to detonating a bomb “over the heads of Iranians,” highlighting the suicidal nature of such a strategy.
Haddad said accusations of Israeli expansionism — often framed as “from the Nile to the Euphrates” — are misdirected. He argued that this description more accurately fits the Islamic Republic’s own regional conduct, citing its “Resistance Axis” that now stretches into Sudan and Yemen.
He openly questioned whether Israel is truly Iran’s “natural enemy,” noting that both Jews and Iranians are culturally viewed by the Arab world as “others.” Instead of seeing this as an opportunity for cooperation, he said, Iran has chosen destabilizing policies that have only driven Arab states into Israel’s orbit.