Arab League–Iran relations

The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.

Within the Middle East, the Arab–Iranian relationship has rotated between peaceful co-existence and open hostility. The Iran–Iraq War remains the most recent instance of a direct armed conflict between an Arab League country and Iran. Some Arab League countries, especially those with Shia-dominated governments, have been perceived as more closely affiliated with Iran than with the Arab League itself. Among other phenomena, this reality has significantly impacted the Arab–Israeli conflict in recent years, as the mutual threat presented by Iran to Israel and many Arab countries has enabled the formation of the so-called Arab–Israeli alliance, which came to fruition in light of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict and the Iran–Israel proxy conflict; many Arab countries have normalized diplomatic ties with Israel in pursuit of regional security against the Iranian government's military and political ambitions, effectively breaking from the long-running Arab League boycott of Israel.