If you look at just some raw numbers, it would seem like Iran shouldn't be a major headache for America and its allies.

Our population is four times theirs.

Our land mass nearly six times larger.

Our GDP more than 60 times greater.

And yet, Iran has been a persistent source of worry for the United States,

especially and ironically, since it gained enormous regional power in the aftermath of the U.S. war in Iraq.

But here's another irony.

While Iran has been a key supporter

of terrorist and militia groups sewing chaos in parts of the Middle East, the Hamas attack on

Israel that initially seemed like a victory for Iran has turned out to be the start of a

significant reversal of fortune. From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. A weakened Iran still poses

hazards to the U.S. and its allies, but also some major possible inroads for achieving American

objectives. My guest believes we need to move quickly on this, but also carefully. Richard Haas is

President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and senior counselor at Centerview Partners.

His article, The Iran Opportunity, appears in Foreign Affairs Magazine.

Richard, welcome back to think.

Good to be with you.

You open your essay by stating a fact that may take some listeners by surprise.

Iran has lost a huge amount of

influence in a very short time. Before we get into how that happened, will you give us a sense

of the regional leverage Iran enjoyed just a couple of years ago? Sure. People were talking about

a Shia crescent, essentially a successful manifestation of Iranian imperialism.

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