When politics collapses into a full‑fledged state of isolation, fragile states begin inventing projects that exist only on paper—or in hurried phone calls. This is precisely what Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian did when he proposed to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid the creation of a “regional union” to promote development and stability during a phone conversation, even as Iran reels under American strikes.

A union? Regional? Development?

In the Iranian context, these words sound exactly like a drowning man proposing the creation of a swimming club.

And Pezeshkian—whose presidency amounts to little more than a bureaucratic chair under the ceiling of the IRGC—did not specify which countries would be invited to this union. Naturally so. Who would accept in the first place?

What “region” is Iran talking about while it fires missiles at its neighbors and wages a shadow war with the United States and Israel?

Any Arab state would look at this proposal the way a doctor looks at a prescription written by a delirious patient: meaningless words with no connection to reality.

Iran today is at its weakest point: a collapsing economy, deep international isolation, eroding influence, and proxies that have lost their ability to set the tempo. And yet, it proposes a “regional........

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