This paper is about the role of religion in Iran’s foreign policy towards Iraq. I will mostly consider the period after the Anglo-American invasion in 2003. Addressing to that issue will let me highlight the importance of Shiism in shaping the identity of Iran and of its populace. Religion became a valuable element of Iran’s foreign policy after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. During the first decade, panislamism was one of the major drivers in shaping Khomeini’s view of Iranian foreign affairs. Religion was then temporarily put aside because of the economic situation Iran was suffering after the 1980-1988 war against Iraq. It was «brought back» during Khatami’s era, serving his purpose to build what was called a «dialogue among civilizations». Today, under Ahmadinejad’s presidency, Islam has been recovered as a tool to have the Muslim masses rised up against America and Israel all over the Islamic world. After the fall of Saddam, one of Iran’s worst threat passed away and so flourishing opportunities to influence the post-invasion reconstruction soon emerged. Given the Iraqi ethno-religious heterogeneity, Iran was interested in encouraging a unity solution in order to avoid instability. Nevertheless, it was blatant that Iran started to enagage in a friendly relationship-building with the new Shiite elite in Iraq in order to normalize its own surrounding regional environment. To sum up, this paper is aimed at assessing the impact of Shiism in Iran’s foreign policy towards post-invasion Iraq, especially considering both the historical and the current sense of isolation of Iran, its «exceptionalism» within the Muslim world, its need to counter the harshness due to Western and American attitudes. In a few words, the imperatives in foreign policy.
