It seems that the Iranians have obtained all they want, without the West losing anything.

Through the nuclear deal, Iran has obtained tacit Western recognition of the new Persian Empire. Iran has ensured that the Persian expansion into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon will be ignored, and Iranians have won an annual rise in oil revenues valued at $60 billion in one lump sum after sanctions are lifted. 

In return, Iran’s obligation [to curb its nuclear programme] allows for an inexpensive no-risk truce, even if it postpones the nuclear dream. What has been achieved without this nuclear dream far outweighs the burden of realising it, at least for the time being.

We have begrudgingly accepted to focus our energy on liberating Yemen to salvage what we can, while Iranians have chosen to restrain from expansion in this geographically relatively distant, yet ideologically fertile country. Yet the Houthi threat to stability in Yemen will remain a winning card in the hands of Tehran, and it will use it when necessary.

Despite Tel Aviv’s screeching and threats, it knows well that it can never carry out a direct unilateral military operation against Tehran.

An agreement between Tehran and Tel Aviv is not impossible, but undesired.

It would undermine the effectiveness of Hizbullah in Lebanon, so why would Iran want it?

It would undermine the justifications of the racist Israeli right-wing, so why would Tel Aviv want it?

However, everything can be compartmentalised and discussed between the two, even if tacitly.

Iranians understand well that they must bear tactical losses to achieve strategic gains.

Perhaps serious cracks in the myth of “the sole resistor” capable of taking on Israel is the most significant of these temporary losses, at least in the eyes of simple Arab peoples.

One need only recall the streets of Cairo packed with pictures of Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hizbullah, during the 2006 war in support and celebration of him, and compare that to the general Arab public mood supporting Decisive Storm after nine years of realising the scale of this loss.

Nonetheless, Iranians, before anyone else, understand it is impossible to publicly or officially negotiate with Tel Aviv, whether to eliminate fears or make arrangements in sensitive regions of common interest.

Tehran will not tolerate another deep rupture in a cornerstone of its religious and political propaganda since Khomeini’s revolution – one of several cornerstones with which Iran’s repressive regime rules its people, and a guaranteed pre-packaged pretext for expansion overseas.

The writer is a co-founder of Egypt’s Nour Party and serves as the chairman’s assistant for media affairs.