Water; an Influential Factor in Determining Iran's Geo-economic Role and Place in the Middle East

To secure water will be one of the highly important environmental, economic and political questions in the future world. Water experts predict that in the foreseeable future, national, regional and international tensions and clashes will increase over the question of water and it will play a more crucial part in regional crises. Given Iran faces shortage of water, it will most likely suffer from numerous political-security tensions. This crisis could be controlled just through grand realistic planning based upon geo-economic interactions, using all possibilities and potentials. Obviously, in the meantime, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be able to take advantage of water as an influential factor – in addition to other geo-economic advantages of the country – at least on regional scale if it utilizes all of its resources and comprehensive management; that is because of the fact that this will pave the way for sustainable development and a more effective role for Iran in the strategically sensitive region of the Middle East.