One Mideast player in particular looks likely to benefit from the travesty playing out between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. 

Because it has close ties to both Damascus and Ankara, Iran was in an awkward position when Turkish forces entered Syria last week to attack the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ankara considers factions of the SDF to be affiliated with terrorists, though the SDF has helped the US-led coalition fight the Islamic State (IS) since 2015.

Now Iran seems to be sitting pretty since the desperate Kurdish forces took the pride-swallowing step of asking the Syrian government — which has persecuted and denied rights to Kurds in their semi-autonomous area (Rojava) for years — for help against Turkey early this week. That leaves Iran in a position to mediate an agreement.

Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and a professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, told Al-Monitor, “Iran recognizes Turkey’s concerns in Syria, but Iran thinks the only solution is to get both Turkey and Syria to a sort of rapprochement, and it’s working to achieve that."