In the context of Islam, Iran's aim is to redress what is clearly perceived as a terrible injustice of Islamic history - the dominance of Sunni over Shia Islam. Traditional Shia Islam sees the origins of this schism - the martyrdom in Karbala of Ali, the Prophet's grandson, at the hands of his political adversaries - as a tragedy to mourn. Iran's fiery brand of revolutionary Shi'ism views the martyrdom of Ali as an injustice to be redressed.

But this should not be construed, simplistically, as evidence of Shia hatred for Sunni Muslims or proof of the irreconcilable nature of the Shia-Sunni divide. The combination of the divine and the subversive is the recipe that makes Iran a country constantly searching for a new regional status quo. Iran's revolution sought a synthesis between Islam and revolutionary Marxist politics that transcended both Iran and Shi'ism. Its goal was to put Iran at the helm of a revolutionary front stretching across the barrier of Persian/Arab, Shia/Sunni and East/West divisions in the name of a common struggle against imperialism, the dominance of Western values and their underlying international economic and political order.

Iran's nuclear ambitions do not necessarily serve the logic of apocalyptic politics, though its rhetoric suggests otherwise. The fact is that an Iranian bomb would enable Tehran to fulfil the goals of the revolution without using it. A nuclear bomb is a force multiplier that, as US President Barack Obama aptly said, constitutes a "game changer". Iran's success will change the Middle East for ever-and for the worse.