First Syria, followed by Iraq and then Pakistan: Over the past two weeks, Iran has rained missiles and drones on its neighbours. Late in 2023, the Pentagon directly accused Iran of a drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean, just 322km off India’s Gujarat coast.

Each one of these attacks had its immediate justifications. But the fact that all these operations unfolded in a brief period and over such a wide geographic radius indicates a far more significant event: the rise of Iran as a Middle Eastern superpower, no longer content with just the use of its proxy Shi’ite militias to achieve its objectives, but ready to deploy its armed forces to achieve strategic dominance.