Iran and Iraq

Privately, most leaders in the Middle East would love to see the back of Saddam Hussein. But publicly, they know that a U.S. attack on Iraq could unleash violent protests that might undermine their own grips on power. So many regional rulers find themselves in the awkward position of acquiescing to "regime change" in private while opposing it in public.

Few countries feel this dilemma more acutely than Iran. For many countries in the region an attack on Saddam is a lose-lose scenario, but Iran's stakes are more mixed. Tehran has an economic interest in maintaining the status quo, since...