persian gulf region

Since the early 1990s, when China became a major importer of energy, the country’s focus on the Persian Gulf region has intensified. This is because the Persian Gulf holds approximately two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves and one-third of its proven natural gas reserves. China is currently the world’s largest importer of oil, and by 2023, its dependence on imported oil had risen to 72%. More than 50% of China’s oil imports, and just over a third of its total oil consumption, come from the Persian Gulf countries. As a result, Beijing has used various means to strengthen its foothold in the economy and energy fields of the Persian Gulf countries. Although bilateral relations between Iran and China have been growing, China has expanded ties with nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—along with actions like supporting the UAE’s position on the three disputed Iranian islands. This dynamic raises the question: What are the consequences of China’s presence and role in the Persian Gulf region for Iran’s regional security?

Saleh and Yazdanshenas (2023) argued that the primary motivation behind the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Iran is their shared opposition to American hegemony, particularly from Tehran’s perspective. They suggest that this dynamic is reshaping the security structure of the Middle East. In an analysis of Saudi perspectives on the growing Iran–China relations, Houghton (2022) stated that balancing relations with regional rivals and maintaining ties beyond security conflicts among regional actors is a consistent pattern in China’s approach to the Persian Gulf and the broader Middle East. According to Azimifar et al. (2021), China’s foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region is shaped by its political and economic ambitions to counter American hegemony. This alignment has led China to support Iran’s national security interests in response to regional developments and to acknowledge Iran’s security concerns.

The present study adopted an analytical–explanatory approach and a qualitative method. The data was collected through library research. The security theory proposed by the Copenhagen School was employed as the theoretical framework. Unlike mainstream approaches, the Copenhagen’s theory offers a broader perspective on security, considering dimensions beyond the military. It is also better suited to explaining the topic of this research due to its focus on regional-level analysis.

The study categorized and analyzed the reasons for China’s involvement in the Persian Gulf region across four dimensions: energy security, regional order, global transit control, and legitimization of restrictive policies against Chinese Muslims. It then examined the impact of China’s role on Iran’s regional security in three areas: military, economic, and political. The research findings indicated that if China’s presence in the Persian Gulf region is primarily related to political or economic factors, it could enhance Iran’s regional security in these dimensions. However, if China’s presence is military in nature, it could pose a threat to Iran’s regional security.

Considering the findings, Iran’s regional policy approach should focus on the limited military presence of China in areas close to its borders, similar to the approach adopted to deal with the U.S. presence in the region. These efforts will only be effective if Iran actively works to resolve security conflicts with Persian Gulf countries and is able to encourage, convince, or persuade regional nations to establish an independent security system, regardless of the presence of great powers. While China’s increasing presence in the region could bring economic benefits to Iran, it is essential to create balanced and multidimensional opportunities for cooperation. Interaction with other extra-regional powers, such as Russia, European countries, and India, should also remain a key consideration for Iran’s foreign policy decision-makers.

The security features in the Persian Gulf, given the geographical proximity to various countries with different cultures and political, security, military, and economic capabilities, have fundamentally influenced the strategic interests and position of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the security arrangements of this region. In light of this reality, various countries, both regional and extra-regional, display technical and tactical movements as part of their operational behavior in the Gulf region. This is a natural and even necessary occurrence for the regional countries, but these movements are interpreted as interventionist by the extra-regional countries. This research is written with an analytical-descriptive method, based on library data. The findings of this research indicate that extra-regional powers, through basic measures such as politics, economics, cultural, social, and military issues, have turned this region into a playground of their influence. The result of these measures creates a confrontational space between the regional countries, which ultimately benefits the extra-regional powers and their influence. Therefore, through security network-building based on political, economic, cultural, and military interactions with regional countries, it is possible to neutralize this influence.

Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran have always been rivals in the Persian Gulf region, and more importantly, the developments in Bahrain are considered a common area of ​​influence for both countries. This article aims to answer the main question by using descriptive, analytical and library sources, what are the effects of Saudi influence in Bahrain on the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The hypothesis of the article is that Saudi Arabia's actions in the Persian Gulf region, especially in Bahrain, include threats such as disrupting regional deterrence and the balance of power, intensifying militaristic policies, economic hegemony, and propaganda and political threats in order to induce Iran's obstruction in the realization The peace of the Middle East knows, and at the same time, it will lead to opportunities such as the expansion of Iran's soft and networked power and the failure of American and Saudi strategies in the region.

This issue became doubly important when the Zionist regime and the Arab countries realized a common threat, especially from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the consequences of the process of normalizing the relations of the Zionist regime with the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region and its impact on the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The findings of the article, which were compiled using Stephen Walt's defensive realism theoretical framework (balance of threat) and using the analytical-descriptive method, show that issues such as: Iranophobia, the expansion of the Shiite crescent, the formation of the Islamic Awakening in 2011, the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the missile power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the gradual withdrawal of American forces from the region, the thoughts of the rulers of Arab countries with regard to their political systems, who see themselves in need of foreign support to strengthen their domestic position; the increasing depth of the Zionist regime's influence in the region in order to retaliate for the presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in its peripheral regions, have all led the rapprochement and establishment of relations between the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region and the Zionist regime, which will undoubtedly change the equations of the Southwest Asia region in various dimensions. These strategic changes will also pose threats to the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Persian Gulf is surrounded by eight countries, including the countries of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, and Oman.  Due to the existence of this Gulf of God, which is known as the Persian Gulf, these countries in the region are far away from poverty and some of them have even become the richest countries, which wealth includes the fossil energy of oil and gas, which has taken the region out of normal conditions.  And it has become a geopolitical region and the interference of great powers in this region is fully seen.  And the existence of these conditions requires that these countries join together to converge instead of diverging and fighting, and to maintain the security of their resources and independence, they must reach a collective security and change the conditions to their advantage by creating an organization together.

After the collapse of the bipolar system and the changes in the international system in the age of globalization, many concepts of international relations underwent changes and interpretations. In the meantime, one of the basic concepts of international relations that underwent a change in meaning is the concept of security, in such a way that security changed from a one-dimensional state of mere military to a comprehensive multi-dimensional state. The evolution of the concept of security has changed and transformed the political-economic strategy of many great powers, including China, in the Persian Gulf region. In this article, based on the title of the article, an attempt has been made to answer the question that the evolution of the concept of security has left an impact on China's politicaleconomic strategy in the Persian Gulf region. In response to this question, this hypothesis has been studied and paid attention to, that the evolution of the concept of security on China's politicaleconomic strategy in the form of a transition from one dimensional military security to comprehensive security has caused China to pay attention to multiple components of security such as political security. , economic, military and cultural in the Persian Gulf region. In order to understand and infer the transformation of China's political-economic strategy in the region, four important categories and issues of the role and importance of energy in China's relations with the countries of the Persian Gulf region, China's commercial exchanges with the countries of the Persian Gulf region, the examination of China's political strategy in the Persian Gulf region and The importance of the Persian Gulf region has been studied and investigated based on the road belt plan. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical.

With manifold political, economic, and security interests in the Persian Gulf region, the United States has constantly practiced an interventionist approach pertaining to the relations between the countries in the region. This approach has turned into action through a wide spectrum of tools such as security treaties, financial aids, arms sales, economic pressure, military involvement, and so forth. Considering the increasing significance of the changing role of the US in regional developments, the present paper employs a qualitative approach to provide an in-depth understanding of the US role in the initiation, continuation, and cessation of the Iraqi Ba’ath regime war (1980–88) against the Islamic Republic of Iran. After conducting a concise and analytical overview on different courses of action taken by the US during war years, the paper puts forth the argument that the US behavior has followed a pendular pattern, creating a regional belt to support Ba’ath regime in Iraq on the one hand, and contain the military and ideological power of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other. Acting upon an interest-oriented grand strategy, the US unique behavior during the war has been set to ultimately meet the manifold interests of the country in the Persian Gulf region.

Oman’s foreign policy during the last five decades has been in line with peaceful approach, neutrality and mediation in some of the crisis of the Persian Gulf region. The main question of this article is that, what impact will the death of Sultan Qaboose have, on the foreign policy of Oman in the Persian Gulf and Middle East region? The hypothesis of this article, which is done, based on the descriptive – analytical way of research, is that, following the death of Sultan Qaboos and the reaching to thrown of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, meaningful changes will not take place in the main strategies of the foreign policy of this country, but we will witness some changes in diplomatic procedures and tactics. Findings show that the political and cultural structure of Oman and the position of this country in the regional and global politics and the admirable legacy that the late Sulatn Qaboos left inside and outside the county, will cause the new Sultan to continue the current foreign policy of Oman, which is based on positive neutrality. At the same time, he will try to adopt special tactics and innovations to show his own special personality to his own nation and to the region. This important point probably will cause some differences in the way of foreign policy, in comparison to the previous Sultan.

This research addresses concentration on Iraq and what the American outlook to it by employing the elements of power that Iraq possesses, through which the United States realizes that it can achieve its future goals in the Middle East in general and the Persian Gulf in particular, but this does not mean that there are no obstacles that prevent this outlook to Iraq which changes the role that the United States wants Iraq to carry out. The importance of the research is also represented in revealing the nature of Iraqi-American relations, and the crises and tensions accompanied them, which the two parties failed to address. The purpose also lies in revealing these weaknesses and the reasons that led to them, at a time when there were alternatives that could replace them through which these weaknesses could be addressed.Because of the breadth, comprehensiveness and diversity of the topic of research, we adopted the (historical approach), which was necessary to identify the background and historical roots of Iraqi-American relations, and the (comparative approach) was also used to compare between Iraqi-American relations before and after 2003, and (the analytical descriptive approach) in describing and analyzing that relationship and determining its scope, as well as using the (Probabilistic predictability approach), to embody a framework for vision and future scenarios for Iraqi-American relations in light of the changes taking place in the region, and to know what the future of Iraq could be through the American outlook to Iraq.

Assuming the US expulsion from the Persian Gulf, this article seeks to answer the question, what are the possible scenarios for how to fill the power vacuum in the region after the expulsion of American forces from the Persian Gulf and the reduction of its hegemony and presence in the region? The article considers three logical cases to answer this question: the first case is "filling this gap by supra-regional powers", the second case is "filling the gap by regional powers" and the third case is "partnership between regional powers and powers "There is a meta-region to fill the vacuum." The authors of the article have tried to show that the third case is more likely to occur in the medium term than the other two cases by enumerating possible examples for each of the aforementioned cases; This is because the arrangement of international power and the presupposition of the rule of rationality over the decisions of the stakeholders make the occurrence of this formulation more probable than the other two cases. The article seeks to provide a realistic understanding of the medium-term future of the Persian Gulf region after the US expulsion by adopting a method of realism and observing, collecting and refining data from sources owned by stakeholders in the event in question..

Factors are very effective in forming alliances between countries. In fact, the goal of many countries in alliances with other countries is to gain more benefits and counter threats, because each country in the field of international relations acts on its own interests and enters into alliances with other countries. Therefore, it must be said that in the formation of an alliance, there must be two main factors (common threat and common interests). The victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 changed the situation in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, including six Arab countries. The southern shore of the Persian Gulf has formed a council called the Gulf Cooperation Council so that they can deal with Iran as a whole. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the question of what are the grounds for the formation of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council against the Islamic Republic of Iran? The hypothesis presented in this research is based on the fact that the purpose of establishing the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council is to deal with the self-made threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The research method used in this research is descriptive-analytical. Findings of this study show that according to Walt threat theory, factors such as geographical proximity, offensive intentions, offensive power and increased offensive capability have led to the formation of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this article, after defining the concept of 'expulsion' and determining its examples, the issue of the US presence in the Persian Gulf region is discussed. After the formal withdrawal of Britain from the Persian Gulf in 1972, the United States emerged as the dominant power in the region. This presence appeared in different dimensions and levels. And reached its peak after the war imposed by Saddam's regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the form of the maximum presence of the US military fleet in this watershed. The present article tries to answer the question that if the issue of US expulsion from the Persian Gulf is realized, the manner and nature of this withdrawal will depend entirely on the US presence in the region, especially in its southern periphery. What layers and surfaces will the Persian Gulf region cover? In answer to this question, the threefold stratification of the US presence in the region, including military presence, cultural hegemony, and presence as a supporter of the region's political systems, will be discussed. The expulsion of the United States from the region must be designed and implemented on the basis of the above three levels.

In this article, after defining the concept of "expulsion" and determining its examples, the issue of the US presence in the Persian Gulf region is discussed. After Britain withdrew from the Persian Gulf in 1972, the United States emerged as the dominant power in the region. This presence emerged in various dimensions and levels and reached its peak after the war imposed by Saddam's regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the form of the maximum presence of the US military in this water area. The present article seeks to answer the question, "What are the layers and levels of US expulsion from the Persian Gulf region?" It should be said that in case of US expulsion from the Persian Gulf, the manner and nature of this withdrawal will depend entirely on the US presence in the region, especially in its southern margin. answering the question, the thre fold layers of the US presence in the region, including military presence, cultural hegemony, and presence as a supporter of the region's political systems, will be discussed. In fact, the expulsion of the United States from the region will be a function of the above three layers, and any plan to expel the United States from the region must be designed and implemented based on the above three levels.

According to Wallerstein's global system theory, the regions have economic characteristics and are shaped by the role they play in the global economy and in the relationship with center and hegemon. The Persian Gulf region is one of the world's sub-systems of the world economy and a peripheral region of the raw materials producer, and because of the importance that the region has in the production of crude oil from the world markets and industrialized countries, there is a significant economic significance for the central countries, and in particular the United States of America as the core And hegemon of the global system. Many of the strategies and policies of the countries of this region are defined and implemented under the control and hegemony of the United States. Accordingly, the present research seeks to answer the question of that in the global economic system, what are the attitudes and approaches of the United States, as the global system hegemon, toward the Persian Gulf sub system? Seeking to answer the question, it has been suggested that the attitude and approach of the United States to the Gulf subsystem in the global economy is based on providing its fundamental strategy for securing energy and the continuation of hegemonic stability The data of this research are collected through library resources and are described in a descriptive-analytical way and within the framework of Walerstein's Global Economic Theory.

The world is divided into various geopolitical regions, one of the most prominent of which is the Persian Gulf and south-western Asia. In recent decades, this geopolitical and strategic region has always been one of the tension regions in the world and has been intensifying in recent years. Although geopolitical events in the Southwest region of Asia have influenced by the global geopolitical structure, its security arrangements and geopolitical structure have depended on largely to Saudi Arabia's and the Islamic Republic's behavior as two superior regional powers and two rival powers. Therefore, the research problem is how the geopolitical relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia and within context what geopolitical discourse can be realized the cooperation and convergence between them and generally in the southwest of Asia. This research is done using descriptive-analytical method and using library data. The results of the research show that the relations between these two regional powers are based on ideological geopolitical indices that have led to militarism, rivalry over domains of influence, ideological rivalries, the division of geopolitical space, increased tensions, and proxy wars in the region. However, if geo-economics strategy and discourse in the region are adopted, regional co-operation and integration and also regional development and sustainable security can be provided.

The geopolitics of tourism is a topic of competition among the powers in attracting tourist at the regional and global level in line with economic policies with the approach of territorial development, national interest and sustainable tourism development. This paper tries to explore the relationship between tourism development and convergence in the Islamic world, especially in the Persian Gulf region the conceptualization of the geopolitical topic of tourism.
Research findings show that the most important reflection of tourism geopolitical attitude on tourism development and convergence of countries of Islamic world can be efforts of the powers to create political stability, increase the level of security in society ,especially the local community of the gulf coast, reduce political conflicts due to the reduction of unemployment in the country and to establish contacts between different ethnicities and nationalities and promote mutual understanding among them.Therefore tourism geopolitics in interaction with security, an opportunity for macro-economic tourism policies in the Islamic world is a strategic strategy for the sustainable development.

The term "Soapstone" is used to refer to chlorite and steatite stones and is known as such because of its soft and slippery texture. It is found in the regions along the central volcanic belt of Iran. Some soapstone pots have been found in a vast geographical area including the Mesopotamian regions of Khafajah, Ur, and Mari; Mohenjo-daro in the valley of Sindh; Umm al-Nahr, Hili, failaka, and Tarout in the Persian Gulf region, and Tepe Yahya, Shuhada, Jiroft, Shush, and Bampur in the southeast of Iran. The greatest number of these pots, as demonstrated by archaeological excavations, have been found in the countries in the Persian Gulf region in the southeast of Iran. The present study mainly addresses the following questions: Is the discovery of cultural artifacts of the southeastern regions of Iran in the south of the Persian Gulf a sign of ethnic emigration or simple cultural relationships? More importantly, what was the status of the Persian Gulf in the regional exchanges in the 3rd millennium BC? In which textures have soapstone pots been found?What are the similarities and differences between such textures? This study was conducted following a descriptive-analytic method. A meticulous review of the related sources and literature and a careful examination of the pots demonstrated that their origin is the southeast of Iran, and the Persian Gulf and Oman Seas played significant roles in accelerating their exchange with other goods in the third millennium BC.

The strategic region of the Persian Gulf which has been introduced as one of the sub-systems of the Southwest Asia is a jewel in the south of Iran located between 16 to 40˚ N latitude and 32 to 57 E longitude. The water area of the Persian Gulf which connects Europe، Asia، and Africa is located in the Persia Gulf region between 24˚ to 30˚ N latitude and 48˚ to 57˚ E longitude. Makran region in the southeast of Iran is located like a pearl between 25˚ to 35˚ N latitude and 58˚ to 70˚ E longitude. The water area of Makran Sea is a part of the Indian Ocean and the only open sea in the southeast of Iran. The significance of this sea lies in its connection to the Indian Ocean. The Persian Gulf is connected to the rest of the world through the Strait of Hormoz and Makran Sea. The collection of the vast waters of the south of Iran which extend from the Red Sea to the coastlines of the Indus River has been called Pars Sea. A part of these waters which extend from the Strait of Hormoz to the west up to Arvandrud Delta and Bahmanshir is called the Persian Gulf. The other part which extends from the Strait of Hormoz to the east up to the delta of the Indus River is called Makran Sea. Therefore، Makran Sea and the Persian Gulf are branches of Pars Sea. In the course of history، several countries and ethnic groups have dominated and ruled the coastal areas of Pars Sea. However، their time is over now، and it is only the Iranian nation which is still standing and guarding its own legacy of sovereignty.