Thomas Friedman, reporting from Abu Dhabi this week, wrote in The New York Times, “There are so many conflicting dreams and nightmares playing out among our Middle East allies in the war on [IS] that Freud would not have been able to keep them straight.”

The worst of these nightmares for US regional allies seems to be a nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran. Friedman recounts how a recent remark that Iran controls Arab capitals in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen — made by a former adviser to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami — spurred further claims that Iran is saying one thing to the Western powers negotiating the nuclear agreement and another, more threatening thing to its neighbors in the region.

No matter, it seems, that Khatami and his adviser left office almost 10 years ago, and that the comments cited carry no weight in terms of Iranian policy.

Nonetheless, the remarks struck a nerve. Iran’s enemy status has been well earned as a state sponsor of terrorism for more than three decades. Few can dispute the cards that Iran has to play in the Middle East, for better or worse, and the understandable distrust and fear of Iran among the regional players.