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Iran Hoped to Profit from Israel-Hamas War, But Big Gains Still Elude It
(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - Tehran has yet to reap tangible strategic gains from the Israel-Hamas conflict. Iran's diplomacy with the West, aimed at easing U.S. sanctions, has halted due to its support for Hamas. Billions of dollars that the U.S. had pledged to Iran in a prisoner-release deal sit effectively frozen. Iran is urging Arab countries that had established diplomatic ties with Israel to renounce them, but none has. At the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Tehran's proposals for economic reprisals against Israel were rejected by Gulf countries, Egypt and Jordan. Iran has long called for U.S. forces and influence to be expelled from the Middle East, but the Gaza war has also rekindled America's mission of defending its interests in the region. Moreover, Israel is now for the first time intent on destroying Hamas, and doing so would deprive Iran of an important member of its anti-Western alliance. "The complete destruction of Hamas would be an embarrassment to Iran and create concerns among Iran's partners in the region that perhaps [the Iranians] aren't as reliable as they thought," said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.