One thing in re Iran that people in the United States continually get wrong is the effect of US aggression against the Islamic Republic government.
Effectively, the United States - and the Republican Party specifically - are extremely beneficial to the Republic hardliners. If it weren't for US aggression, it's very possible that liberalism and secularism would have prevailed by now. But the threat of invasion and destruction of Iran doesn't just push moderates to support of the Republic: it pushes left wingers there too.
I have several friends in and from Iran and, unsurprisingly if you know me as a poster, they are quite far left. They are cosmopolitan, irreligious, and very critical of the conservative Islamic government. But, when faced with the prospect of an imperialist war by the United States overriding their country's sovereignty and threatening to turn it into a rubble heap, they side with Iran's government and are critical of people who do not.
In short, meddlesome conservatives in the United States are the kindling for nationalism and right-wing extremism abroad.