// SECURITY: MIDDLE EAST, IRAN AND THE GULF
The Iran war has exposed the limits of the existing security architecture, accelerating the erosion of the regional order. For the G7, supporting the transition towards a more stable balance of power is essential From conflict to order: the G7 and the future of the Middle East INTERVIEW
What strategy guides Iran’s approach to the 2026 war? Since its 1979 revolution, Iran has viewed the United States as the greatest threat to its sovereignty and independ- ence. It believes the revolution was won by making Iran free of western control, and the US has been constraining Iran economically and trying to undo the rev- olution. So this war is a culmination of a much longer struggle against the US. All the tactics Iran has used to resist the US have come together in the way it has absorbed the pounding from the US and Israel. The regime sees this as a grand resistance to what it considers the US effort to re-subjugate Iran to the foreign control that was in place before the revolution. Iran treats the global economy as a bat- tlefield. The US can bomb Iran, kill its leadership and impose huge costs on the country, but Iran – as it has for 47 years – can resist through asymmetric, guerilla warfare. We’ve seen that in Iraq, What is the impact on the global economy and security? Lebanon and across the Middle East. Now it uses drones and missiles instead of proxies. But Iran does not have a view of how it would manage the global economy to its advantage. The global economy is deliberate collateral damage. The US decided to wage war against Iran assuming that the war would be so quick that the G7 wouldn’t even notice it. But the US was unable to change the regime, and it didn’t get Iran to sur- render right away. Instead, Iran has escalated prices in energy markets, par- ticularly affecting Asian and European markets and creating crises in supply chains including urea for fertiliser, diesel fuel for Africa and cooking oil for India – with long-term impacts. How effective has the G7 response been so far? The US expected some of the mem- bers to participate in this war, but G7 members have decided it’s not in their individual political, economic and stra- tegic interests. And the future of the Gulf economies is very important – they invest heavily in European and Asian economies, and the movement of petro dollars has been foundational. Also, Europe has viewed the Russian threat and the war in Ukraine
Interview with Vali Nasr, Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
24 // G7 FRANCE: THE ÉVIAN SUMMIT 2026
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