In 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin gathered in Tehran as masters of a world at war, while Iran was treated as little more than a convenient meeting ground. Eighty-three years later, the tables have turned. Once again, foreign powers make their way to Tehran, but this time they come not to dictate Iran’s future, but to negotiate their own. The same regional governments that spent decades sheltering beneath foreign military umbrellas now approach the Persian table, hoping to collect whatever crumbs of security diplomacy might offer them. History has a remarkable sense of irony: once, the powerful gathered in Tehran because Iran could not refuse them; today, its neighbours gather because they cannot afford to ignore it. The guests have changed, the balance of power has shifted, but the address remains the same. Tehran. And this time, the Persian lion sits at the head of the table.