The war that began on 28 February has transformed the Iranian nuclear threat in Saudi strategic thinking from a hypothetical scenario into a concrete, long-term security challenge, reinforcing Riyadh’s view of nuclear capabilities as an instrument of strategic balancing and national security.

With the outbreak of the war on February 28, the nuclear issue has been absorbed into a far broader bargaining environment in which longstanding disputes over sanctions, ballistic missiles, regional influence, and entrenched mutual distrust now intersect with a new set of geopolitical frictions generated by the war itself.

For Tehran, the Zangezur Corridor thus represents less a binary choice between obstruction and acquiescence than a test of its ability to align strategic red lines with policy innovation.

China and Russia, the influential powers in the SCO, have abandoned their reservations in their relations with Iran in recent years and established a more comprehensive relationship.

Iran’s protectionist behaviour in foreign trade to protect the domestic market created problems in the trade of many products within the scope of the PTA.