Why West and a Non Islamic Iran returned to its nationalistic zoroastrian roots and secular liberal contemporary system follower can be the greatest ally.
A secular, nationalist Iran that proudly re-embraces its Zoroastrian-Persian roots while adopting a contemporary Western-style liberal democratic system would instantly become the West’s single greatest ally in the entire Eurasian landmass, bar none. Eighty-five million educated, historically sophisticated people who already speak a language of poetry and empire would awaken from fourteen centuries of imposed Arabo-Islamic identity and remember that they, not the desert tribes of the Hejaz, once ruled the world with tolerance, grandeur, and law. Cyrus the Great’s cylinder would replace Khomeini’s turban as the national icon; Nowruz would eclipse Ashura; the Faravahar would fly higher than any crescent. In one stroke, the West would gain a natural brother-civilization that shares its reverence for pre-monotheistic high culture, its belief in individual dignity, and its memory of building empires that did not need to justify themselves with divine revelation. Strategically, the effect would be apocalyptic for every adversary the West currently faces. The Islamic Republic’s collapse would pull the plug on Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrian regime, and the entire Shia jihadist network. Sunni fundamentalism would be intellectually disemboweled: the most culturally prestigious nation in the Islamic world openly declaring that Islam was a 7th-century Arab import it no longer needs would shatter the myth of a timeless ummah more thoroughly than a thousand think-tank papers ever could. Russia and China would lose their most valuable regional partner; the Persian Gulf would become a Western lake; the Caucasus and Central Asia would realign overnight. Iran’s geography, oil, brains, and military tradition would flip from liability to superpower-level asset. Culturally and psychologically, the fit is perfect. Persians already consume Western films, music, and ideas whenever the morality police aren’t looking; freed from clerical shackles and reconnected to their own pre-Islamic pride, they would embrace Shakespeare and Jefferson as eagerly as they once embraced Plato under the Achaemenids. Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz would become new Berlins and Tel Avivs—vibrant, creative, proudly secular cities where ancient fire temples stand beside start-up hubs and concert halls. A liberal Zoroastrian-nationalist Iran would be Israel’s mirror image across the Middle East: two ancient-non-Arab civilizations reborn as modern, innovative, fiercely independent democracies that share the same enemies and the same vision of human flourishing.