Shia Crescent

In recent years the term has been used in Western political discourse to identify areas under Iranian influence or control, as Iran has sought to unite all Shia Muslims under one banner.

[1] Areas in the Shia Crescent include Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Yemen, and western Afghanistan.

[3] The term was coined in 2004 by King Abdullah II of Jordan at a time when Iran was reportedly interfering in Iraq in the run-up to the January 2005 parliamentary elections.

[8] Large Shia minorities also exist in Lebanon, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and to a lesser extent, UAE.

[11] Noam Chomsky, an American university professor and linguist, in his book, Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire and Resistance, claims that most of the Middle East's energy reserves lie in the so-called "Shiite Crescent" Iran's influence in the Shiite Crescent challenges US efforts to control Middle East energy resources.

In 2014, Qods Force Chief Qassem Suleimani outlined Ali Khameini's strategy of toppling the Arab governments through military insurgencies waged by Iran-backed Khomeinist militants.

"[17]In 2017 or later, Hussain Ibrahim Qutrib, an Associate Professor of Geomorphology at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, wrote an article about the demographic changes that have occurred in "Useful Syria" as a result of the Syrian Civil War.