IN DEPTH I Volume 14 Issue 6 I December 2017 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2017 CCEIA I UNIC WILL IRAN BECOME A REGIONAL HEGEMON IN THE MIDDLE EAST? The recent crisis in Lebanon, with the mysterious resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, is one more episode of the undeclared war between the two main players that take part in the contemporary power game in the Middle East: Iran and Saudi Arabia. 1 This is a Cold War- style conflict in the form of a struggle for influence between the two main players through their proxies. This struggle is predominantly taking place in ethnically and religiously polarized states, like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. 2 In that context, Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Arab Gulf, as well as Israel and Trump administration, are concerned due to the ongoing Iranian surge for increased regional influence, which has been pretty successful in Iraq and Syria. 3 Inasmuch this process is part of an Iranian agenda in pursuit of regional hegemony, namely undisputed dominance in the Middle East, 4 this is the case) this kind of behavior could be called as hegemonism. 5 This article examines the perspectives of Iranian hegemonism and, specifically, the possibility of the development of an Iranian hegemony in the Middle East in the years to come. 1 Foreign Affairs, November 6, 2017. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/lebanon/2017-11-06/what-hariris-resignation- means-lebanon. Access on November 12, 2017. 2 - Foreign Policy, January 11, 2016. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/11/what-would-a-saudi-iran-war-look-like-dont-look- now-but-it-is-already-here/. Access on July 13, 2017. 3 Foreign Policy, November 21, 2017. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/21/tehran-is-winning-the-war-for-control-of-the- middle-east-saudi-arabia/. Access on November 22, 2017. 4 John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001), 40. 5 International Studies Review 1 (1999): 141-171, 143-144. Michalis Kontos Assistant Professor of International Relations Department of Politics and Governance, University of Nicosia