Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Towards South Asia (Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses)

Countries are the most important actors in the world's policy. They are proportional to their capacities in the formation of phenomena at various global, regional, national and decimal levels. Each of these levels has their own features and functions. The regional level has spread a lot in recent decades and the desire of countries in influencing the growing areas of development. The Islamic Republic of Iran, as one of the active actors, has different geopolitical regions with different abilities around them. One of the most important geopolitical areas of Iran is South Asia; This area includes Indian countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan. Each country interested in communicating and playing in the geopolitical region of the southern Asia, first of all, should identify its weaknesses and strengths, which are the basic foundation of spreading or reducing relations in various areas with political actors in the region. The present research has been applied and using descriptive-analytic research methods and quantitatively aims to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Islamic Republic of Iran in using the capacities of the South Asian region. Analysis of field findings and libraries indicate that the Islamic Republic of Iran in the use of the capacities of the South Asian region with five versatile variables involves Iran's geographical location in access to peripheral spaces (Central Asia, Caucasus, etc.), Iran's passage toward the south Asia (Transit), the existence of natural resources and energy reserves in Iran, the relative security of Iranian geographic space over the peripheral regions, and common cultural and historical relations, and four weakness variables, including the weakness of communication and human infrastructure in Iran and compared to South Asia, The development of common areas with South Asia faces regional weakness in Iran's foreign policy and the developed economy of Iran in the domestic domain.