The last time Iran was convulsed by nationwide protests, in 2022, the Arab world was transfixed. The Islamic Republic had spent decades building a network of powerful allies that came to dominate the region. Many Arabs wondered if the prospect of regime change in Tehran offered a chance to throw off Iran\u2019s yoke in their own countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pan-Arab news outlets, often funded by Gulf monarchies, egged on the protests with sympathetic, round-the-clock coverage. Arab diplomats kept their counsel in public but sounded ebullient in private. At one point Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused Saudi-backed media outlets of inciting further unrest and demanded that the kingdom rein in their coverage. \u201cOtherwise you will pay the price,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protests in Iran<\/a> today arguably pose an even greater threat to the regime than those in 2022\u2014yet the reaction in the Arab world has been surprisingly muted. Evening-news broadcasts this month have been led, routinely, by stories other than Iran. Many officials sound nervous when they comment, if they say anything at all. Two things account for the change in tone: Iran\u2019s diminished status, and the Gulf\u2019s growing fear of chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Israeli wars that followed the massacre of October 7th 2023 have wrecked Iran\u2019s network of proxies. Hizbullah, its once-powerful ally in Lebanon, has been badly weakened and still faces near-daily Israeli air strikes. Bashar al-Assad\u2019s pro-Iranian regime in Syria is no more. Iran itself is reeling from 12 days of Israeli and American bombardment in June. As for Salami, he no longer makes threats: he was killed by an Israeli air strike at the beginning of that war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this makes the fate of the Islamic Republic seem less urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> The protests in Iran today arguably pose an even greater threat to the regime than those in 2022\u2014yet the reaction in the Arab world has been surprisingly muted https:\/\/t.co\/cQUYYF21oh<\/a><\/p>— The Economist (@TheEconomist) January 14, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>