© AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi

Catherine Shakdam is the Associate Director of the Beirut Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a political analyst specializing in radical movements, exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook".

While many world nations remain under the impression that Washington and its regional allies in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia in the lead, are indeed conducting just wars in the region, fighting and opposing the rise of Wahhabi radicalism,For all its statements and promises, for all its officials engineered narrative and its corporate media flamboyant accusations against Muslims and so-called "enemy" Muslim nations, who more than the United States has contributed to both the rise and dissemination of ISIS?To be perfectly accurate, while Washington provided political cover and military assistance, it is Riyadh which took care of the logistics:This great game western imperialists and their puppet regimes have played traces back decades if not centuries,Saudi Arabia, the author of global Islamic radicalism and a close ally of the US, is interlocked with the western ruling establishment. How else explain why the largest US weapons sale in history was made to Saudi Arabia in 2011. SThe cradle of terror, the kingdom has bred radicals on an industrial level.Up until the 1960s Wahhabism was largely confined to the Arabian peninsula, right until the moment the Saudi monarchy decided to give refuge to radical members of the Muslim Brotherhood fleeing persecution in Nasser's Egypt. "A cross-fertilization of sorts occurred between the atavistic but isolated Wahhabi creed of the Saudi religious establishment and the Salafi jihadist teachings of Sayyid Qutb, who denounced secular Arab rulers as unbelievers and legitimate targets of holy war (jihad). It was the synthesis of the twain-Wahhabi social and cultural conservatism, and Qutbist political radicalism- that produced the militant variety of Wahhabist political Islam that eventually produced al-Qaeda," wrote Ambassador Curtin Winsor.The rabbit hole goes further down still!Western powers' link to terror as a weapon of mass destabilization in the pan-Arab world has been extensively documented by reputable personalities and researchers. In his writing veteran journalist Robert Dreyfuss has kept track of the long history of US and British covert dealings with the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other so-called Islamic groups against secular nationalist and Arab leftist groups that sought to undermine British and other western interests in the Middle East.The Islamic right wing was an effective proxy against anti-imperialist and nationalist Arab leftism.America's guilt before radicalism and terrorism is no longer open to debate, it has become a proven fact.But if America is not fighting terror then who is?No power in the region has been more intent on breaking terror's back than the Islamic Republic - so much so that Tehran has already committed its men and weapons in Iraq, offering Baghdad its unconditional support in its most dire hour of need.Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs best summarized today's political dynamics and implications this July when he stated that extremist forces' primary purpose in the Middle East had been to steal the wealth of Muslim countries and destroy the resistance front against Israel. He also insisted - rightly so, that terrorism would not exist in the Middle East if Muslim countries in the region were united.And while western powers continue to spew their poisoned propaganda against Iran, arguing that Shia Islam stands a threat to world stability, let us remember which alliances they have chosen over Iran: Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, the Wahhabi-radical trinity!And if in truth Iran does present a threat to neo-imperialism it is because its stands inherently opposed to any form of political and religious diktat. Let us remember that Iran's republic was born in rejection of tyranny. To reclaim their freedom Iranians had to pay the ultimate price, rising a resistance against western hegemonic ambitions.Iran's message and policy ever since have been in support of political self-determination, not subjugation.Just as the pan-Arab world is facing extermination by the hands of ISIS, Iran has been leading the real axis of resistance - From Lebanon to Yemen and Bahrain, voices have risen in denunciation of Wahhabism, calling for nations and communities to stand together against the real oppressors.Where will you stand?