Syria's Status in the Security and Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2011-2015)

After the victory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran and Syria- albeit with different attitudes and ideologies, increasingly developed their relations in international and political fields, due to the fact that they had adopted common positions on a few regional and international considerations. The United States and its regional and Western allies do consider Iran, Syria and the Islamic resistance as the greatest threats in the region. On this basis, this research tries to answer the question of “What approach has Iran taken in its foreign policy in its relationship with Syria with regard to the recent developments in the former?” by using an analytical-descriptive method and from the viewpoint of defensive realism. The hypothesis in this research is: “Syria’s status in IRI’s security and foreign policy has become of increasing importance, with the formation of new security-political arrangements in the West Asia region after the September 11 attacks especially American invasion of Iraq, the Syrian crisis and the pressures upon Syria exerted by America and its Western and Arabic allies to make it keep away from Iran.