Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai said on Tuesday that his country stands for the unification of the Muslim world to solve the Palestinian, Syrian and other problems of the region.

"The Palestinian problem is still unresolved for 70 years ... The way to resolve disagreements and other problems passes through the unity and consolidation of Muslim peoples. And so we can solve the Syrian, Yemeni, and Bahraini problems, as well as the problems existing in Iraq. And the solution of these problems is possible when resolving the Palestinian issue, "the ambassador at a roundtable in the MIA" Russia Today ". At the same time, existing differences between Muslim countries, he wrote off on the intrigues of "external players".

It is obvious that the Iranians clearly pretend to be a regional hegemon, says Vladimir Sotnikov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Time for this is not chosen by chance: now there is a tough confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the recent acute diplomatic crisis around Qatar was a clear expression of the crisis development of relations between the Saudis and Iran and their rejection of each other, political analyst Utro said,.

One can only assume what Iran meant and against whom it proposes to unite (from the statement of Mr. Ambassador this is not entirely understandable). However, it is worth recalling that periodically such statements on the part of Tehran sounded before - in particular, even after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Khomeini urged Iran to lead the Islamic world in the fight against external and internal enemies. "Then, however, everything was clearly expressed - there was a" big Satan ", the United States," small Satan ", the USSR. Now Iran has other tasks. In addition to claims for regional leadership in a tough confrontation with Riyadh, the Iranians are counting on the fact that they will play, if not the main, then the decisive role in resolving all enumerated crises, "the expert says..

However, considering that recently the Trump administration once again designated Iran as a world evil, it is quite logical to assume that under "external players" Tehran means, including the United States. In this context, the demonstration of reluctance to sink under America and attempts to unite the allies around them look quite justifiable.

At the same time, the question arises: will candidates be overdone in regional hegemons, given that similar ambitions are demonstrated by both the Saudis and Turkey? It would be very simple, and someone - for example, the "Islamic state" - would like very much to see this happen, and all these countries finally came together in a tough battle with each other, Vladimir Sotnikov believes.. "But this is a simplistic view of things. The fact is that each of the countries that are candidates for regional leadership - and Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, and Iran - are building their system of checks and balances, their associations. Therefore, to say that they "perederutsya", and existing crises and persist, and exacerbated, I would not. The very development of the situation in the Middle East does not allow us to talk about this, all these steps, including Mr. Ambassador's statement, clearly trace national interests, but this does not mean that these countries will converge in the struggle for leadership, "said the interlocutor" Morning ".

Thus, the Iranians are counting on the fact that the settlement of acute crises and conflict situations in the region will go not according to somebody's external rules, but according to the vision of the Islamic countries themselves, in this case led by Iran.

How will these claims be accepted by Turkey and whether it will support this process is difficult to say: Ankara leads its complex and multi-game game in the Greater Middle East, taking into account also the Kurdish factor.

As analysts noted earlier, on the one hand, Turkey is not very profitable to activate Iran, on the other, Ankara and Tehran have a field for mutual agreements on the Kurds, and on Syria and Iraq.

Vladimir Sotnikov, in his turn, notes: there are a lot of unknown quantities in this regional equation, and it is possible to judge Erdogan's reaction to the Iranian initiative only by his further steps taken, including, in the settlement of the above-mentioned crises.