A total of 1.5 billion Muslims live in 57 Islamic countries scattered throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Pacific. Arabs, Turks, Iranians, Indians, Malaysian and other nationalities constitute the main body of the Muslim population of the world. Although Muslim countries account for 70 percent of total energy resources of the world, their share of global revenues is a meager 7.5 percent.

Iran, Turkey and Egypt constitute three major sides of the Middle East each encompassing vast areas of land with populations of over 70 million. Suitable cooperation among these countries will greatly help their own development and that of the whole Middle East in view of their rich civilizational and cultural backdrops and their central role in modernization of the region. High economic output and gross domestic product, abundant inexpensive labor force and acceptable technological advances are other factors which can help them achieve that goal.

The Arab uprisings and the one in Bahrain in particular, have caused tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Bahraini government’s Saudi-backed crackdown on pro-democracy protests has caused ties between Iran and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to turn somewhat hostile in nature. However, just a few years ago, the situation was very different, with Iran being invited to a GCC summit. This paper intends to give context to the aforementioned development by analyzing its background and dynamics of Iran-GCC relations.

Russia and Iran neighboring with strategic region of Eurasia, provides the two countries with a special capacity that has not been considered seriously until now. Cooperation for the development of energy industries in the Caspian littoral states, providing new infrastructure for energy transportation from these surrounded areas to the energy markets via Russia and Iran and attention to the capacity of the north - south corridor which was established previously in a framework of an initial agreement between Iran, India and Russia, can create a new arena of regional cooperation among these countries.

Israel’s legitimacy problem has entered a new phase in the light of recent developments. Thus far, Israel and the west have been denouncing any anti-Israeli measure on grounds of being nondemocratic. At present, democratic uprisings are in full swing and pose a serious challenge to regional position and legitimacy of Israel.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have been regular rivals throughout their history and the general course of that rivalry has been usually set by the regional balance of power. That situation has clearly changed after 1980 and the signs of that change are evident in the political literature used by Saudi officials on Iran. They have been trying to blame Iran and the Islamic Revolution for regional and their own domestic problems.

While completing a general assessment of the fourth round of international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic of Iran, this paper assumes that even if the sanctions successfully target the country’s economic sector, they will not reach their main objective, which is to suspend the Iranian nuclear energy program within the timetable desired by the West.

Saudi Arabia and other member states of the Council are suffering from structural economic and political crises. Although wholesome efforts made to make people silent may be effective in short-term, but in the long run, as public awareness increases, especially after democratic transition in other Arab nations, such efforts will lose efficiency. Therefore, Saudi Arabia is contemplating a broad-based strategy to contain popular uprisings.

Iran-China bilateral relations, established in 1971, have experienced quite substantial change in the post-1979 period, especially since the end of the Cold War. Both countries, despite fundamental differences in ideology and governance structure, and based on a number of areas of commonality, most prominently similar international outlook as developing states of the South, and based on mutual need in economic fields, most notably energy, and also in the military field, chose to expand their relations in various areas.

The United Nations has not taken a coherent and special approach to the current wave of Islamic uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The UN’s approach to Islamic uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, which started in Tunisia and soon swept through Egypt, Libya, Yemen Bahrain and other regional countries shows that at the beginning of uprisings, the UN’s approach has not been consistent. In later stages following the second half of May 2011, its approach has not been conformant to the Organization’s nature and goals.