BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Grand Shia Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said Iran and the Axis of Resistance have become central to West Asia’s emerging security and political order following the U.S. defeat in its joint war with Israel, and that any new regional arrangement must pass through Tehran.
“The indisputable equation is that Iran is strong, and so is the Axis of Resistance. The realization of a new regional order now passes through Tehran, Sana’a, Beirut, and other influential capitals” in West Asia, Qabalan said in a statement.
Qabalan described the outcome of the war as a historic setback for Washington, saying decades-long U.S. regional ambitions had been reversed. 
“The war on Iran ended in a historic U.S. defeat. The scenario which Washington had been pursuing for decades to implement in West Asia is now going down the drain,” he said.
The cleric said Iran has become one of the cornerstones of regional developments and that the opportunity Tehran has presented at this juncture is one that might not come again for another century. He added that Washington and Tel Aviv are going through one of the most difficult periods in their history.
Qabalan pointed to a high-level meeting of senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in Tehran as evidence that a new regional order is taking shape, describing the quadrilateral gathering as its cornerstone and stressing that it must form free from U.S. and Israeli influence.
He also highlighted the strategic significance of the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait in shaping regional developments, saying Iran’s resilience and steadfastness were among the key factors reshaping regional equations.